Mokoena makes it three wins in a row

Khotso Mokoena, South Africa's leading athlete, made it three in a row when he won the long jump at the 48th Golden Spike IAAF Grand Prix in Ostrava, Czech Republic, before a large excited crowd on Wednesday night.

It was not only his third successive win in Europe but he also recorded exactly 8.33m for the third time in a row and once again missed his own national record by six centimetres.

The victory jump, achieved in the second round, was his only legal effort of the competition.

Apart from Mokoena's fine win by 14cm from Frenchman, Sadim Sdiri, three South Africans also qualified for the World Championships in Berlin in August.

Samson Ngoepe caused a major surprise when he lowered his personal best in the 800 metres to 1 min 45.17 sec. while former world junior champion javelin thrower, Robert Oosthuizen, managed the entry mark for the first time with a distance of 81.18m.

He finished third behind Mark Frank of Germany (83.51) and Tom Goyvaerts of Belgium (82.25), and with Ngoepe brought the tally of South African qualifiers to 13.

Sunette Viljoen, Commonwealth champion in the javelin, achieved her second qualifier of the year by finishing fourth with 61,13m in the midst of four of the best women in the world.

She managed a throw of 58.61m in the opening round but had to wait for her final effort before she unleashed her best ever throw outside South Africa and managed to finish ahead of the German star, Steffi Nerius.

Ngoepe recorded his fine win in the 800m B-race before the main programme started and earned him a fifth place overall on the day.

The A race was won by David Rudisha of Kenya in a fast 1 min 44.09 sec.

Ngoepe, who is running better in every outing, had won two 800m races during the last eight days with times of 1:46.47, on June 9 in Sweden and 1:46.22 in Leiden, Holland, last Saturday.

His special effort in Ostrava was only his second race below 1 min 46 sec and will surely enable him to start with Mbulaeni Mulaudzi in the World Championships.

Thuso Mpuang, African 200m champion, failed to get close to his best form, in both sprints. He first managed only 21.14 sec in the 200m and then also finished last in the 100m B-race clocking 10.68 sec.

Wouter le Roux, 2009 SA champion, ran well in the 400m hurdles and was well placed until the closing stage of the race when he struck the final hurdle to finish seventh in 51.70 sec.