Rueben Ramolefi
Khotso Mokoena and Ruben Ramolefi will have to reach one A-Qualifying standard at an international event by the end of June in order to qualify for the Olympic Games. Both athletes will compete in Doha at the first leg of the Samsung Diamond League on Friday, 11 May 2012.
Mokoena recently exceeded the Olympic Qualifying A-standard of 8.20m in the men’s long jump at the Yellow Pages III meeting in Pretoria (20 April). Mokoena’s leap of 8.29m in the opening round secured him the first Olympic A-Qualifier. According to his coach Hansie Coetzee they were never looking to get the mark early in the season. “Khotso needs to be in the best shape come July/August. So the earlier meetings were part of our build up”. The 2008 Olympic silver medallist will be up against Greg Rutherford (GBR), the British National Record Holder with his 8.35m jump on 3 May in Chula Vista, California.
SA 3000m steeplechase record holder , Ruben Ramolefi, needs to clock 8:23.10 in order to add his name to the list of qualifiers. At the World Championships in Daegu in 2011 the 33-year-old from the Northern Cape finished 2nd in the heats in 8:11.50, improving his own SA Record in the process. Ramolefi won his 9th consecutive SA title at the Yellow Pages SA Senior Championships on 14 April in 8:24.48.
Should these athletes achieve the A-standard at this international meeting, they will join LJ van Zyl, Cornel Fredericks, Willem Coertzen, Caster Semenya and Sunette Viljoen who have fulfilled the Athletics SA and SASCOC criteria for the London Olympics to date.
Speak Your Mind