Lambrechts wins third Africa title
Burger Lambrechts won his third African shot title in Benin on the opening day of the Continental Championships.
Torrential rain made the circle slippery for all competitors, and Lambrechts' opening throw of 19.51m was good enough for the gold medal.
Lambrechts won his first Africa title in 1998, was silver medallist in 2004 and took gold in 2010.
“It is great because I am not young anymore. At 39 I enjoy it to compete with the younger guys. I will continue for as long as my body allows it, although I know that it will get more difficult with time to compete at this level,” said Lambrechts after the win.
South Africa was denied a clean sweep of the medals in the shot put by Egypt's Yasser Fathy Ibrahim (18.78m) who claimed the bronze medal ahead of Jaco Engelbrecht (17.91m).
Orazio Cremona’s second-round put of 19.19m earned him the silver medal, a step up the podium from his bronze in 2010.
In the men’s 100m, Simon Magakwe and Roscoe Engel qualified for the second round. Magakwe won his heat in 10.39sec and Engel progressed on time (10.58sec) after finishing third in his heat.
Hannes Dreyer did not go through to the next round after clocking 12.26sec after sustaining a slight hamstring injury. The semifinals had to be moved due to heavy torrential rain that stopped proceedings.
All athletes in the men’s 400m proceeded to the next round. Ofentse Mogawane clocked 46.37sec, finishing second in his heat with Willie de Beer third, finishing the race in 46.80sec and Oscar Pistorius second in 46.32sec in the fifth heat
The women solidified their spots in the next round of the 400m with Tsholofelo Thipe, Rorisang Ramonnye and Estie Wittstock heading into Thursday's semifinals.
Thipe comfortably won her heat in 52.06sec ahead of Raasin Mcintosh (LBR) with a 52.63sec clocking. Ramonnye won her race in 53.58sec and Estie Wittstock also went through after clocking the same time to finish fourth in her race.
Other athletes that went through to the next round are Zarck Visser in the men’s long jump with a leap of 7.47m and Claudia Viljoen in the women’s 110m hurdles.
