 |
| Khotso Mokoena © Gallo Images |
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.
 | |  | | | Remember to go to www.supersport.com on your Mobile phone and keep in touch with the latest scores wherever you are. |  |
| |  | |  |
|
