The Friday final proved to be as competitive as expected, with Simbine clinching his maiden championship gold in a time of 9.95 seconds. Van Niekerk followed in second with Simbine’s fellow UP athlete Thando Roto claiming 3rd place in the men’s 100m final. Van Niekerk would go on to redeem himself on Saturday by claiming the 200m title at 19.90s with TuksSport High School sprinter Gift Leotlela finishing 3rd in the event.
Elsewhere on the track, women’s 800m Olympic champion and former UP athlete Caster Semenya continued her local dominance with first place finishes in both the women’s 400m and 800m finals at 51.60s and at 2:01:03 minutes. Former and current UP-affiliated athletes continued to dominate in Potch as hurdling trio LeRoux Hamman, LJ Van Zyl, and Constant Pretorius claimed gold, silver and bronze respectively in the Men’s 400m hurdles final.
On the field, UP shot-putter Orazio Cremona also claimed gold in the men’s event, setting a new personal best at 20.63m, and in the process ensured qualification for the World Championships in August.