JOHANNESBURG, Thursday, 21 February 2008: A mouth-watering showdown looms when the country’s finest 400m hurdlers line up at the Yellow Pages Series IV meeting at the Germiston Stadium, Ekurhuleni on Friday (February 22). All the main contenders for victory in this event are vying for the Beijing Olympic Games A qualifying standard of 49.20 seconds and Alwyn Myburgh is the latest to join these front runners after clocking 49.04 at the Athletics Vaal Triangle Provincial Championships last Saturday.
Myburgh joins Pieter de Villiers (49.22), Ockert Cilliers 49.69, Louis van Zyl 49.74 and Pieter Koekemoer (51.55) as the main contenders for the Olympic qualifier. Of the lot, Van Zyl is the most upbeat about the encounter. “I look forward to all five of us qualifying at the head of the group. We have such depth in this event in South Africa and we should get the qualifying phase done and dusted on Friday. Training under my new coach, Nico van Heerden, my target is to run under 48 seconds sometime this year,” Van Zyl revealed.
Myburgh, meanwhile, has relocated his base from Tshwane to Vanderbijlpark to be closer to his coach, Herman Venske. With 46.20 seconds in the 400m to his credit at the Yellow pages meet in Secunda, Myburgh reckons he has the speed to achieve the Olympics qualifier. At the Provincial Championships I was able to run 49.04 secs (400m h) virtually alone. With the stiff challenge I expect on Friday, I should run much faster since I have a decent speed base. For now I will focus on running with 14 strides between hurdles.
“Later after qualifying for Beijing, I plan to convert my technique to a 13 stride pattern between hurdles for at least the first half of the race. I have improved my strength base and this should translate into running faster times,” says Myburgh.
Athletics South Africa (ASA)’s High Performance Manager, Wilfred Daniels, revealed that only five athletes have achieved the Beijing qualifiers. “These are marathon runners Norman Dlomo and Hendrick Ramaala, Justin Robbeson (javelin), Ruben Ramolefi (3000m steeplechase) and Robert Oosthuizen (javelin). As the second half of the Yellow Pages Series gets underway this Friday, we expect a significant increase in this number,” says Daniels.
“At the moment, athletes are preparing for the ASA Senior Track &Field Championships which will be held in Stellenbosch, Cape Town on March 14-15, which will serve as the final trials for the selection of the Provisional Team for the Beijing Olympics. Every six weeks we have training camps which are a week long and the next one will be in Tshwane from the March 17-22 at the High Performance Center.
“Athletes selected into the Provisional Team will continue training in preparations for the African Senior Championships in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from April 30-May 4. And then from June 9-July 9 they will be in a training camp in Portsdam, Germany where they have opportunities to compete in the various competitions around Europe, which we will use to re-assess their performance levels for final consideration to be included in the final team for the Team SA Team to the Bejing Olympics. The final camp for those selected is planned for Beijing starting August 6 until the opening ceremony on August 8.
Meanwhile prior to the Yellow Pages Series IV meeting on Friday, there will be an Athletics Development Clinic on Thursday, 21 February. It will be staged at Germiston Stadium and no longer at Huntersfield Stadium in Katlehong as previously reported in sections of the media. The clinic will last for three hours from 12 noon. Several leading athletes will be there on hand to share their knowledge but more importantly inspire the young school going children who are keen to interact with them. These athletes are Estie Wittstock, Geraldine Pillay, Johan van Bekker, Justin Robbeson, Khotso Mokoena, the Phalula twin Lebo and Lebogang, Louis van Zyl, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, Rene Kalmer, and Tebogo Masehla.
