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SA 800m champion Caster Semenya and the second-fastest local man over 100m, Henricho Bruintjies, will be the draw cards for the second leg of the Athletics SA (ASA) Nite Series in Cape Town on Tuesday.
The one-night meeting at the Green Point Stadium is loaded with men’s and women’s middle-distance competitions, but it is likely that “King B” Bruintjies could steal the thunder from Semenya and company.
He ran his first competitive race, a 10.28 seconds, for a second place behind training partner and friend Akani Simbine in the 100m final at the Athletics Gauteng North Championships in Pretoria last weekend.
The Tuks Athletics Club sprinter skipped the opening leg of the Nite Series in Pretoria, where Simbine clocked 9.96 seconds for a new national record in the short dash final a fortnight ago. Bruintjies said he was not ready to race then.
Bruintjies, who hails from Paarl, Western Cape, is banking on home support when he lines up in the short-dash final.
He was the joint record holder until two weeks ago, when Simbine’s run in Pretoria shaved off a fraction on the 9.97 they had shared since July last year.
Bruintjies reached the semifinals in his debut at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China, last year.
Meanwhile, Semenya will run her first 800m race of the season, having concentrated on the 400m and 1 500m in her building phase to shape up for the Rio Olympic Games later this year. She recently ran a personal best of 51.47 seconds to clinch the 400m title – in the process breaching the 52.20 Olympic qualifying standard – in Potchefstroom last weekend. She also clocked a 4:17 in the 1 500m final at the meet.
The 25-year-old last competed in her favourite, the two lap, when she bagged an 800m gold at the African Games in Congo-Brazzaville last September. She was noncommittal as to what could be expected from her at the Green Point Stadium. “It is too early in the season to expect anything spectacular,” she said. “Fitness-wise, I am 100%, but the ultimate goal is to be ready for the Olympics.
“I am just having fun in domestic competition. My main focus is the Olympics in Rio. I’m 25 now and I believe I’m reaching my peak,” she said on Friday.
Running in the colours of the North-West University, Semenya broke the Varsity Athletics 400m record with 52.45 seconds triumph at the University of Joburg on Friday.
Although she came a disappointing last in the 800m final at the World Championships last August, the Limpopo-born runner still finished the year with a season-best time of 1:59.59 – the first time she had dipped under two minutes since September 2013. Semenya attained the sub-two-minute mark during the heats of the Beijing global meeting, which provisionally qualified her for Rio.
Apart from her and Bruintjies, other accomplished athletes who will take centre stage in Cape Town are 400m hurdlers LJ van Zyl and Wenda Nel. Youth Olympic Games champion Gezelle Magerman will size up Nel, the world championships finalist in China last year, in the women’s 400m hurdles final.
The third leg of the series will be held at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth on April 19.
The final series, which the ASA said would be dominated by the relay, will run on May 24 at a venue to be confirmed.
