Youth Team to Zimbabwe

SA Youth Team to Zimbabwe

25 April – A youth team of 48 athletes, one of the biggest teams to date, has been announced by Athletics South Africa to represent South Africa at the CAA Southern Region Youth Championships in Zimbabwe.

These athletes have all been selected according to their performances after the Yellow Pages SA Junior, Youth and Schools Championships that took place in Germiston from 29-31 March.

A new generation of youth athletes will be looking to gain international experience from the Championships in Zimbabwe and they could look up to athletes such as Tiaan Smit (WPA), Ruan Combrinck (Gauteng), Lezaan Jordaan (CGA) and Somari Els (AGN) who have represented South Africa in France at the World Youth Championships.

Tiaan Smit was ranked number 2 in the world in the 110m hurdles in 2011 just before the World Youth Championships and ran a personal best of 13.61sec in Germiston on 30 March. His best in 2011 was 13.66sec.  Lezaan Jordaan won the shot put in a standoff with Geraldine Duvenage (CGA) at the Yellow Pages SA Junior Championships where she won the event in the last round with the new 3kg weight.  She put a massive 17.52m to win the Championships.  Somari Els will again represent South Africa in the discus throw with Duvenage also competing in this event.  Duvenage not only won the National Youth title, but also finished 5^th at the SA Senior Championships in Port Elizabeth against the top senior athletes in the country with a new personal best of 47.68m.

The Southern Region Youth Championships will take place in Zimbabwe from 25-27 May.

See the full team below: