Top 10 finish in Barcelona

Lezaan Jordaan

Tuesday, 11 July 2012 – Lezaan Jordaan, still a youth athlete, finished ninth overall and produced yet another personal best in the women’s shot put final on the first day of the World Junior Championships in Barcelona.

She set a new personal best in the qualifying rounds yesterday morning with 15.27m in the second round, but improved the distance in the opening round of the final with 15.37m.  In the second round she followed with a throw of 14.82m and finished with 14.96m.  The top three places went to German athlete Shanice Craft, Yang Gao and Ka Bian, both from China.  Craft won with a distance of 17.15m while Gao and Bian threw 16.57m and 16.48m respectively.  Currently only 16 years of age, Jordaan will be a junior at the next championships and could line up at the World Junior Championships in 2014.

Gerhard de Beer will be in the final of the men’s discus throw tomorrow night after finishing second in his group.  De Beer opened with a foul followed by 56.74m and 59.01m in the third round. Jordan Young (CAN) automatically qualified with 59.54m in the second round.  The automatic qualification mark was 59.40m.  Jan-Louw Kotze failed to qualify for the final as his best attempt in the second round was measured at 55.59m, placing him ninth in the group overall. Wojciech Praczyk (POL) had the best result with 60.72m in the second round.

Only Pieter Conradie qualified for the semi-finals in the men’s 400m after finishing just behind Aldrich Bailey (USA) in his heat.  Bailey won the race in 46.40sec with Conradie crossing the line in 46.70sec, an automatic qualification into the next round.  Ruan Greyling’s 47.65sec was good enough for third place behind Australian Jarryd Buchan and Alphas Leken Kishoyian from Kenya, but just too slow to qualify for the next round.  Kishoyian won the heat in 46.22sec followed by Buchan in 47.04sec.

Neither Duwayne Boer nor Mpho Maphuta went through to the final in the men’s long jump. Boer’s best jump of 7.22m was in the third round while Maphuta did not record a distance.  Philippa van der Merwe and Nabeela Parker also did not make it past the heats of the women’s 100m as they finished fifth in their respective heats, their times clocked 12.03sec and 12.21sec respectively.  Van der Merwe competed with a slight tailwind (0,7m/sec) while Parker faced a strong headwind (-2.4m/sec) in her heat.

Action this morning includes the women’s 400m heats with Justine Palframan and Janet Seeliger as well as the heats of the men’s 400m hurdles.  Youth athlete Monique Stander will line up in the semi-final of the women’s 800m.

Wednesday, 11 July 2012.  Day 2

*Subject to athlete proceeding to the final after the semi-final at 19:30