Harmse hammers title No15
Mar 21, 2010 12:53 AM | By Simnikiwe Xabanisa
[b]As tempting as it is to say the SA National Track and Field Championships aren’t quite what they used to be, one has to consider that it’s a miracle they were even held this year
Throughout the ructions caused by the infighting at Athletics South Africa (ASA) over the past year, the very notion of a domestic season was just that, an idea. [/b]
Perhaps because yesterday was mostly a day for qualifying (a lot of the more interesting finals are today), the fare on offer was a bit ordinary at times in the stifling heat and humidity of Durban.
But the athletes were counting their lucky stars because they had a platform from which they could be the best in the country at their event and qualify for a Commonwealth Games trip to India.
The people who were expected to perform well - the Chris Harmses, Rene Kalmers, Juan van Deventers, Khotso Mokoenas and Stephen Mokokas - did just that.
Fresh from his world indoor silver in Doha last weekend, Mokoena was never threatened by the local field, winning the long jump comfortably in 8.01m.
Having run the 1500m qualifiers less than an hour before his 10000m final, Gauteng North’s Mokoka bided his time in the main event, only hitting the front with six laps to go and staying there to win in 28min 18.54sec.
Harmse, 36, took consistency to new levels, winning his 15th consecutive national title in the hammer throw to break race walker Cecil McMaster’s 82-year-old record of 14.
The big man’s distance of 73.54m was just 81cm shy of the A qualifying standard for the Commonwealth Games.
The meet in Delhi in October is one he is desperate to make because despite being the Commonwealth record holder, he has yet to win the title.
Having taken time out to win the Soweto Marathon in her 42km debut late last year and set three SA indoor records recently, Kalmer popped up to win the 5000m women’s final ahead of Lebo Phalula with a time of 15:51.32sec.
Kalmer will run the 1500m final today.
One event that has always been strong in South Africa is the 800m, but it has been literally hamstrung.
With Hezekiel Sepeng here in a coaching role, and Mbulaeni Mulaudzi nursing a hamstring strain, Samson Ngoepe’s aggravating a hamstring injury from training just 50m into his heat robbed today’s final of any of the so-called name athletes.
On the subject of coaching roles, one couldn’t quite work out whether the sight of 39-year-old Riaan Botha - whose charge is the promising but injured Cheyne Rahme - contesting the pole vault title was a good or bad thing.
This was especially so when he took Boland’s Johan du Plessis to the wire in finishing second on countback at 4.80m.