by Alfonz JuckManyonga 846 WL
Luvo Manyonga, photo by John McGrath (www.johnmcgrath.co)
BLOEMFONTEIN (RSA, Mar 8): South African World U20 200 m silver medalist Gift Leotlela won the 100 m at the Speed Series meet in hand timed 10.0. He beat Olympic winner Wayde Van Niekerk 10.1 and Emile Erasmus also 10.1. “I still have a lot of hard work to do,” said Van Niekerk, adding he plans to compete in the 100m, 200m and 400m at the Free State championships at the weekend. In the 100m B-race (0.0), Leroux van Tonder’s electronic time was 10.09 and runner-up Keenan Michau 10.12, which meet the qualifying standard for the world championships in London in August. Third-placed Hendrik Maartens clocked 10.15, which would have qualified him for last year’s Olympics. Ruan De Vries admitted he was surprised by his 13.23 (+0.3) 110m hurdles national record, which must still be ratified. Very fast also second Junior Mkatini with 13.28, hopefully here the timing was ok. Long jumper Luvo Manyonga, silver medallist at last year’s Rio Games leaped to excellent 846 (+0.2), early World lead. His foul during the series was measured at 872 level. National team with Erasmus, Sesele, Leotlela and Hlungwane clocked 39.03 in the 4×100 m. Rikenette Steenkamp won the hurdles in 13.09 (+0.3).
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