Akani Simbine
Akani Simbine

PRETORIA, South Africa – Doha 100m fourth placer and South African record holder Akani Simbine showed early form at Athletics Gauteng North Regional Championships here at favourable altitude.

He started with world-leading 9.91 seconds (+1.7m/s wind) in heats. The time is the only sub-10 so far this season. It was also Simbine’s second-fastest ever, three-hundredths of a second outside his 9.89s.

Simbine later clocked 10.03 (-1.8m/s wind) in semifinals and 10.01 (+1.3m/s wind) in the finals. Behind him were Henricho Bruintjes 10.08 (and also 10.08 in semis -0.9) and Simon Magakwe 10.31 (but 10.17 +1.7 in heats).

Phatitshedzo Maswanganyi ran 10.06 for a new South African 100m junior record.

He won the finals in 10.24 (-0.5m/s), beating Sinesipho Dambile 10.29 and Eckhardt Potgieter 10.30 (10.29 in semifinals).

Khuzwayo Ukona won the 400m in 46.50, Spanish guest Samuel Garcia clocked 45.82 in the semifinals.

In the U20 400m, Antonie Nortje 46.56 was the best finisher.
In the hurdles, Ruan De Vries windy 13.56 (+3.8m/s wind) and Rikenette Steenkamp 13.22 (-0.8m/s wind) were the respective male and female winners.

Also to mention in the U16 girls 400m, Precious Molepo clocked an impressive 53.59 personal best.


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2 COMMENTS

  1. This is great for what it’s worth. I hope it will mean something for 2020, as far Olympic implications. I really hope Tokyo goes on after all.

  2. Good to see some track and field going on somewhere. Also hear there was a meet in China today as well. I wonder when the thing is going to be over so people can get back to normal life.

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