SA challenge fizzles out in Beijing

In recent months, Akani Simbine and Henricho Bruintjies, South Africa’s 100m joint record holders, have been hogging the limelight after recording sub-10 second times on European tracks but they perished in the semi-finals in front of a packed Bird’s Nest Stadium.
 
First to join the also-rans scrapheap was Bruintjies (10.21) who finished seventh in the first semi-final that was won by Usain Bolt (9.96).
 
In the next semi, Simbine (10.02) was a shade faster, perhaps helped by the blistering pace set by the winner Justin Gatlin who won in a scintillating time of 9.77 seconds.
 
Later on in the final event of the evening session, Bolt won the gold medal in a time of 9.79 secs and Gatlin (9.80) was forced to settle for silver.
 
The 400m hurdles semi-finals proved a bridge too far for the seasoned campaigner LJ Van Zyl, a former World Championships bronze medallist. He managed a sixth place in the second semi with a time of 48.89, and it was way off the mark to advance to the last eight 
 
In the first event on Sunday, Lebogang Shange finished in 11th place in the men’s 20km race walk in a time of 1:21:43 which allowed him to rewrite the SA record books. He managed to clip seven seconds off his previous 20km SA record of 1:21:50 set in Lugano in March.
 
Nothing came of Mzansi’s twin challenge in the shot put qualification round. Orazio Cremona (19.04) and Jaco Engelbrecht (18.63) each finished in 13th place in the Group A and B competition respectively. The top four performers in each group were clear of the 20-metre mark, which meant the SA duo failed to advance.
 
The women’s 400m hurdles heats saw Wenda Nel secure qualification for the semi-finals on Monday. Running in heat three, Nel finished second in a time of 54.45, setting the second fastest time for the day.
 
Nel’s time suggests she will be a strong contender in the semis.
 
There was mixed fortunes for SA in the 400m heats. Berend Koekemoer (46.52) finished last in heat five and then moments later Wayde van Niekerk (44.42) finished first in the next heat.
 
Van Niekerk, who is arguably SA’s best hope for a medal on the track, clocked the fourth fastest time in the heats and will compete in Monday’s 400m semi-final round.
 
Carina Horn (11.08) snatched a third place in the women’s 100m heats and has qualified for Monday’s semi-finals. She’ll have her work cut out to make further progress as her time overall eighth best for the event.

ANA