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With the exception of reigning world 400m champion Wayde van Niekerk, the cream of South African senior and junior sprints will descend on Pretoria for the opening meet of the inaugural Athletics South Africa (ASA) Nite Series in Pretoria on Tuesday.
South African 100m joint record holder Akani Simbine and World Indoor Championships-bound 110m hurdles champion Antonio Alakana (25) will hog the headlines at the one-night event at the Pilditch Stadium.
Commonwealth Youth Games champion Gift Leotlela and World youth Champs silver medallist Kyle Appel, both of them teen sprint sensations, will feature in the 200m.
Simbine and Alkana are set to carry South Africa’s hopes for track and field medals at the Olympic Games in August, while Leotlela and Appel are the country’s medal hopefuls at the IAAF Under-20 World Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in July.
The Pretoria meet – which offers the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m finals among the 17 disciplines on the night – will serve as an ideal build-up event for the Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, showpiece, as any performances that meet Olympic qualifying standards will be recognised.
The series will be staged at four different venues countrywide (see box).
But Van Niekerk (23) will miss Tuesday’s series for the Free State Track and Field Championships over the weekend.
The ASA Series will provide Alkana with his first taste of competition this season before the Bellville Athletics runner represents the country at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland, US, from March 17 to 20.
“It’s going to be my first competitive meeting and I’m looking forward to running a fast and clean race,” said the Cape Town-based sprinter, who made his debut at the senior world championships in China last year.
The reigning African Games champion recently loosened up with runs in the 110m hurdles (13.70 seconds) and 100m (10.43 and 10.23 seconds) to get race fit.
Meanwhile, Simbine, who shares the standing 9.97-second national record with Henricho Bruintjies, recently linked up with the latter as a training partner under coach Werner Prinsloo at Tuks.
As for his prospects on Tuesday, the SA 100m champ was noncommital: “Well, it’s my first race [of the season], so nothing too great to expect. I just want to run and finish the race. I am only running the 100m.”
Other big names who have entered the Pretoria series are long jumper Khotso Mokoena and world champs bronze medallist Sunette Viljoen.
Athletics SA president Aleck Skhosana said the athletics governing body would carry the costs of running its series after they failed to secure sponsorship for the four events.
“We are not changing our tune that the event will go on, with or without a sponsor. It is something that we can’t postpone because the idea is to create opportunities for our athletes to qualify for the Rio Olympics, doing so at home,” said Skhosana, adding – without disclosing the amounts – that there would be prize money on offer for podium finishers.
. The Varsity Athletics competition that was set for the Coetzenburg Stadium in Stellenbosch on Friday was postponed due to the recent student unrest at the campus.
The executive committee said this week: “After careful consideration, we have decided to postpone the Varsity Athletics competition to allow universities across the country the opportunity to address various challenges faced at their respective campuses.”
It is also uncertain whether the second leg of Varsity Athletics, scheduled for March 18 in Johannesburg, will take place.
The ASA said the 60-year-old world record
holder, who retired in 1993, would conduct coaching clinics in Cape Town next
weekend (March 12-13); Port Elizabeth on March 15-16; and on March 18-19 at the
Academy of Hammer Throwers in Sasolburg, Free State.
ASA.
