By Mark Etheridge
There were mixed fortunes for South African athletes around the world in the last few days and on the face of it Simon Magakwe and Juan van Deventer will probably be happiest with their form.
The South African 100-metre champion had a win and a second place at the Atletski Miting in Ljubljana, Slovenia. First he ran second in the 100m, clocking 10.26sec behind winner Marvin Anderson of Jamaica (10.21). Then he won the final race of the evening, the men’s 200m in 20.73, beating Nigeria’s Peter Emelieze (21.19).
Van Deventer, has shown fine form this season and continued to do so in Rieti, Italy where he ran a season’s best 3min 34.52 for the men’s 1500m in a race won by Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop (3:31.78).
That’s not far off the 3:34.30 personal best he ran in New York last year and Van Deventer will be hoping the selectors of the Commonwealth team for India later this year were taking notice. None of our top three 1500m athletes made the cut, Johan Cronje and Peter van der Westhuizen also missing out.
Cronje was a disappointed man after pacemaking duties in Brussels last week, saying it was difficult to find motivation for the rest of the season without something like a Commonwealth Games to aim for.
Like Magakwe he was also in action in Slovenia where he ran the 800m and ended second behind world junior champion David Mutua of Kenya. Mutua clocked 1:50.08 to Cronje’s 1:50.11.
One of our stars who must be getting just a bit worried with his form is Commonwealth 400m hurdles champion LJ Van Zyl. Van Zyl was in action in Zagreb on Wednesday night but could only make third place with a time of 50.29. Winner was American Justin Gaymon in 49.19 with Belgium’s Michael Bultheel second in 49.77. Van Zyl, who is in the Commonwealth team, has now failed to break 50sec for the second time in a period of three weeks.
Normally one of the strongest finishers in the one-lap hurdles, Van Zyl has battled to find the extra zip in the final stages and will no doubt be working hard at rectifying this quickly.