Photo: www.jamaica-gleaber.com
ZENNA MULLER
The third event of the Yellow Pages Series took place at Absa Tuks Stadium on 20 April, where former 800m World champion Caster Semenya qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games. Semenya ran the 800m under the two-minute mark, qualifying with a time of 1:59:58 just under the Olympic Qualifying time of 1:59:90. Semenya told the media, “It’s a weight off my shoulders and I’m very happy with my time.” Khotso Mokoena jumped 8.29m, 9 centimetres further than the Olympic A-sandard distance of 8.20. He still needs to make a second qualifying mark at an international event. Wenda Theron failed to qualify for the Olympics under the 55.50 seconds qualifying time. However, Theron won the women’s 400m hurdles with a time of 56.05 seconds. In the 5km men’s and women’s walk, Wayne Snyman (Tuks) came in first place with a time of 20:29:44. Susan Swannepoel (Tuks) was the first woman to cross the finish line and came in 6th place with a time of 24:30:03. In the men’s shot put, Orazio Cremona (Tuks) threw a distance of 19.65m, taking silver to UJ’s Jaco Engelbrecht with a winning distance of 19.75m. Sonja Smuts (Tuks) threw a distance of 14.80m, securing the first place. Tuks athlete Muntingh Hamman came second in the men’s 110m hurdles with a time of 14.22 seconds. Teammates Werner Pretorius and Kobus Moolman came in third and fourth, both with a time of 14.33 seconds. Hubert de Beer (Tuks) came second in the men’s high jump with a height of 2.10m. In the 400m, Willie de Beer (Tuks) finished in first place running a time of 45.95 seconds. Estie Wittstock ran silver in the women’s 400m with a time of 53.02 seconds. Women’s 100m hurdle teammates, Claudia Viljoen and Erika Kleynhans, came in first and second place respectively. Namibian athlete, Globina Mayova, set a new women’s 100m Namibian record with a time of 11.66 seconds. Carina Horn (Tuks), placed third in both the 100m and 200m events. Tuks discuss athlete Elizna Naude came in first with a distance of 55.55m. Semenya now joins the list of Olympic Qualifiers where LJ van Zyl and Cornel Frdericks (400m), Sunette Viljoen (javelin throw) and Willem Coertzen (decathlon) already qualified. 10 500 athletes from more than 200 nations will compete in this year’s Olympic Games. Almost 8.8 million tickets will be sold to see the world’s top athletes in action.
