Track Sprinters
Some of Western Provinces, as well as the country’s, top track and field athletes will be in action at the final leg of the Yellow Pages Interprovincial Series, which takes place at the Bellville Stadium this Saturday 3 March.
Western Province is lying second on the points table behind Gauteng North so good performances at this weekend’s meeting could see them move to top of the table. Gauteng North’s 100m sprinters Cherese Jones and Carina Horn, as well as a double by Wenda Theron in the 400m and 400m hurdles at last weekend’s meeting in Germiston, saw Gauteng North take first place in the series.
African junior champion, Rocco van Rooyen, will be hoping to repeat his win in the javelin (69.04m) in front of a home crowd, with the province’s relay team of Samantha Pretorius, Siobhan Loots, Stacey Welsh and Bernice Roman planning to improve on their winning time of 47.60.
Sonja van der Merwe placed second in last weekend’s 200m and was fourth in the 400m behind three upcountry runners Wenda Theron (Gauteng North), Eugenie Wicksell (USSA) and rival Anneri Ebersohn (Gauteng North). Overall winner and runner to watch is Tsholofelo Thipe from Athletics North West North.
Local lass and top athlete Zintle Xiniwe won the 5 000m by 6 seconds last weekend and is the province’s best middle and long distance athlete on the track. The Western Province women’s 4 x 100m relay team took first place last weekend so will be looking for another win this weekend.
Young 400m hurdler, Taariq Solomons, joins the WP team having started his season on 21 February with a time of 52.59, and will be hoping to move closer to his 2011 personal best of 51.39.
The men’s 4 x 100m relay team will have their honour to defend, as they did not finish last weekend’s relay and as a result lost points, so will be out to prove a point.
Triple jumper Jason Sewanyana is the only athlete from the coast competing this weekend, with Keenan Watson and Roelf Pienaar (Boland) taking on Zark Visser who is jumping close to 8m in the long jump and the one to watch.
This meeting provides athletes with another opportunity to run faster, jump higher and throw further with the London Olympic qualifying standards high on their agendas.
Gates open at 11h30, and the main programme gets underway at 13h00. Tickets are available at the gate at R20 for adults and R10 for children.
I love athetics since i was the age of 10, untell now, the most place whr i love to run is on the track, im a sprinter kinda person, when i was on atlantis senoir secondary high and it was time to get read on the track i focus more on the track then the people thats about to run against me, i never fear when it cames to my running. i love athletics becouse im good at it and its my passion, dream, i run different places i got meddles for 1st place mostley and 2nd place aswell bt my arm is only get 1st place on track ive got to be in the wp team aswell and i enjoyed it so much and misses it too.