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SA juniors show real promise
While Tazmin Brits wasn't at her best under trying circumstances, and Luvo Manyonga had the rest of the team on the edge of their seats in the final of his event, South Africa's two medallists face bright futures after returning from the World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada, on Thursday.
Brits was forced to grit her teeth in the women's javelin throw, having taken two voltaren injections to nurse her injured right elbow, and hung on to secure the bronze medal with a 54.55m fourth-round effort.
"I picked up the injury two weeks before the championships, so there wasn't much I could do," Brits said.
"There were only physios and that sort of thing available to us, and we weren't really equipped to manage that kind of injury, so I had two injections which helped in the initial stages of the final.
"But the women's 5 000m was on at the same time and caused delays in our event, so it probably went on for an hour longer than we expected.
"After my fourth throw the numbness went away and my fifth throw (a 53.79m effort) was really sore. It felt like my elbow had torn off and I couldn't straighten my arm."
Brits passed on her sixth and final attempt, and while she would have "preferred silver or gold", the 19-year-old has promised to add another dimension to South Africa's depth in her event.
Commonwealth champion Sunette Viljoen has made a real breakthrough this year, having beaten some of the best in the world, and former African record holder Justine Robbeson has shown a return to form after recovering from elbow surgery.
And with a throw of 60m still in her sights this season, provided she can overcome her injury woes, Brits believes she can close the gap on the experienced duo of Viljoen and Robbeson, who are 26 and 25 respectively.
"It's nice having those girls throwing as well as they are," Brits said.
"It will make me push myself to be able to compete with them and beat them."
If anything, Manyonga is an even brighter prospect, having broken Khotso Mokoena's national junior long jump record this season. While he needed a last-round effort of 7.99m to clinch gold in Moncton, the 19-year-old has been the most consistent junior in the world this season.
Manyonga, who flew straight to Cape Town on Wednesday and did not arrive in Johannesburg with the majority of the team, is already producing leaps that will challenge Mokoena's dominance in the event on local soil.
And if the pair work together, much like the friendly rivalry between the women's javelin trio, Mokoena's silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics could well turn to gold at the London Games in 2012.
Rocco van Rooyen, still only 17, also showed promise in continuing South Africa's strong tradition in the men's javelin throw.
Van Rooyen heaved a personal best 74.13m effort to place sixth in the final of his event.
Wayde van Niekerk burst onto the scene as a real prospect in the men's 200m sprint, finishing fourth in 21.02 and falling only 0.02 seconds short of the bronze medal won by Canadian Aaron Brown in 21.00.
South Africa tied with Sweden and Qatar for 16th place on the
medals table, beating the likes of Italy, Spain and New Zealand,
and climbed five places from their standing at the 2008 global
junior showpiece in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
