Race on for Africa’s fastest man and woman
Normally any women’s 100m sprint duel on South African soil would be between record holder Carina Horn and champion Alyssa Conley.
|||Normally any women’s 100m sprint duel on South African soil would be between record holder Carina Horn and champion Alyssa Conley.
But there will be a new dynamic at play over the next two days at the African Championships at the Kings Park Athletics Stadium in Durban.
Firstly, Conley told Independent Media on Tuesday that she won’t be running in the shorter distance as she will be concentrating on her preferred 200m as well as the 4x100m relay.
“I just got back from my European season last week Thursday, and I had a lot of races to get track-fit and good recovery. For the African Champs, I’m focusing on the 200m as I’ve just had a long European season and long SA season, and I just want to keep fit and healthy for the Olympics, and be able to do both at the Olympic Games. I will just do the (4x100m) relay and 200m in Durban,” Conley said.
Horn has another, foreign threat to the gold medal – the fastest woman in the world this year, Murielle Ahouré. The Ivory Coast superstar broke Nigerian Blessing Okagbare’s African record of 10.79 with a blistering run of 10.78 in Florida in the US just 10 days ago.
It surpasses her own previous best of 10.81, and the 28-year-old is the sure favourite for the 100m crown in the final on Thursday afternoon, especially with Okagbare absent as Nigeria are not sending a team to Durban.
The 100m heats and semi-finals take place on the opening day of action on Wednesday, with Horn joined by Tebogo Mamatu (personal best of 11.40) from Team SA. Horn is finding her best form again after losing to Conley at the SA championships in April, and ran an 11.18 in Austria in late May.
Her personal best and joint SA record of 11.06 places her third fastest in the field behind Ahouré and a second Ivorian in Marie-Josee Ta Lou, who ran a superb 11.05 in Doha in early May.
It is a real pity that the 25-year-old Conley will not run in the 100m as she produced two new personal bests of 11.23 and 23.00 in the last month, but could go head-to-head with Ahouré in the 200m.
“Hopefully I will get to run against her in the 200m, as she is entered there. There will be great competition in the 100m and 200m. So I will be pushed for a good time in the 200m, but I just hope it warms up a bit in Durban as the weather has been iffy today,” Conley said.
“But I’m ready and remaining positive, getting my mind prepared for what’s coming. Physically I’m 100 percent, I’ve had good conditioning and my biokineticist has been keeping me in tune and I want to keep it that way. I want to look after my health as I have just got it back and I don’t want to be out again (with injury).”
The men’s 100m is going to be a similarly competitive race, with the South African contingent of Henricho Bruintjies (9.97) and Akani Simbine (9.96) the quickest athletes in the competition.
Bruintjies produced a wind-assisted time of 9.89 in Italy three weeks ago, but because the wind was so radically beyond the limit at +4.4m/s, it’s difficult to judge how quick the SA champion is at the moment.
Simbine comes off a week-long training camp with Usain Bolt and Wayde van Niekerk in Jamaica, where he produced a brilliant 10.01.
But the two South Africans will face a tough battle for the gold medal from another Ivory Coast duo in Ben Youssef Meité (9.99) and Wilfried Koffi (10.01), who run those times this year.
The third SA 100m sprinter is teenager Gift Leotlela, who has a personal best of 10.21.
Both the men’s and women’s 100m heats and semis take place on Wednesday, with both finals on Thursday.
The first track final on Wednesday’s opening day will be the men’s 10 000m, where Stephen Mokoka and Gladwin Mzazi will have a massive challenge on their hands when they come up against a whole host of top Kenyans and Ethiopians.
SA champion Mokoka’s season’s best of 27:48.84 pales in comparison to the leading Kenyan William Sitonik (26:54.66) and Ethiopian Tamirat Tola (26:57.33), who are ranked second and third in the world this year behind British world champion Mo Farah.
ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za
@IndyCapeSport - Independent Media