Northern Gauteng sprinter Morne Nagel will make his European indoors debut on January 27 when he competes in an international athletics meeting in Moscow.
However, his participation in Russia may prevent him from running in an invitation event in Sasolburg on January 23.
The organisers were hoping that Nagel would strive for a really fast 200 m time on the sprinter-friendly track.
“I may leave for Europe on January 23, which will make it impossible to compete in Sasolburg,” Nagel said on Tuesday.
After his visit to Russia, Nagel’s next indoor meeting is likely to be in Dusseldorf, Germany, on February 6.
Nagel, who has run outstanding 60 m times on indoor tracks, says he would like to compete in a few 200 m races.
The organisers of the Sasolburg meeting say athletes such as Chris Harmse (hammer throw), Elizna Naude (discus), Alwyn Myburgh (400 m hurdles) and Snyman Prinsloo (100 m and 200 m) want to participate.
The meeting could be a warm-up for the Athletics SA track series starting three days later in Secunda.
Nagel, meanwhile, is making outstanding progress with his preparations for the European indoor season.
He clocked a 200 m time of 20.57 seconds in Pretoria in November and then ran 6.65 over 60 m and a 32.15 over 300 m at the Engen holiday meeting in Bellville on December 15.
He is now strongly considering a combination of the 200 m and 400 m. This could be bad news for 400 m specialists such as Paul Gorries, Jan van der Merwe, Ofentse Mogawane and Hendrik Mokganyetsi.
Nagel received his gold medal as a member of the SA 4x100 m relay team that won the world championship in Edmonton, Canada, in 2001 only late last year after the USA team that had won the gold medal, were officially disqualified.
Top coach Hennie Kotze is training some of his athletes, such as Myburgh and Ter de Villiers, at Sasolburg this week. About 23 years ago, Kotze was one of the stars of the last Nedbank One-Hour meeting to be held at the same venue.