LJ van Zyl in Rome (© Getty Images)
Still bubbling from defeating Kerron Clement and James Carter in the men’s 400m Hurdles at the IAAF Golden League meeting in Rome eight days ago, Louis van Zyl led a South African medal sweep in the event at the 9th All Africa Games tonight (21). If it was the figurative icing on the cake for South Africa - they took four gold medals in one evening session - there was real cake waiting back at the team camp for birthday boy van Zyl.
Double celebration for birthday boy Van Zyl
“I was 22 yesterday and our Olympic committee bought me a big cake but I didn’t eat any of it because of the final today,” van Zyl said after stopping the clock at 48.74. All three South Africans broke 49sec, with Pieter de Villiers second (48.91) and Alwyn Myburgh third (48.91). However, after running 48.24 in Rome, van Zyl has set a high standard for himself. “The time was not so great,” he said. “But it is the title that counts. Even if it had been 49.74, I would still have been happy.”
Van Zyl, the 2002 World Junior champion in Kingston, was sixth in the 2005 World Championships, in Helsinki, and runner-up to Clement, of the United States, in the IAAF World Cup, in Athens, last September. He moved into the top six fastest in the world for the year in Rome where Clement, his successor in 2004 as World junior champion, finished second and Carter, winner of the previous Golden League race, in Paris, was third.
Saying that he feared no 400m hurdler in the world at the moment, van Zyl believes that he has the potential to take a medal at the 11th IAAF World Championships in Athletics beginning on August 25. “It was important to win here before the World Champs, a good exercise to run two days in a row,” van Zyl said. He added that the competition between one-lap hurdlers at home had been an enormous help. “It keeps me on my toes, I have to keep my form up and up,” he said.
South African godl for Josephs, Naude and Harmse
Sharing South Africa’s gold medal stage with van Zyl were Janice Josephs, in the women’s Long Jump (6.79), Elizna Naude, in the women’s Discus Throw (58.40) and Chris Harmse in the men’s Hammer Throw (76.73). For Harmse it was his best distance of a year which began with a training accident in which a stray javelin lodged in his left arm.
Harmse’s success tonight may be of some inspiration to Salim Sdiri, the French long jumper who was struck by a javelin thrown by Tero Pitkamaki, of Finland, in Rome. “We were at an ASA (Athletics South Africa) high performance centre in Pretoria, in January, and I was helping some athletes measure distances when a javelin struck me in the arm,” Harmse recalled. “It went in deep, 10cm, and was sticking out like an antenna.
“Then, this week, I had ‘flu so I am very pleased to win after these problems. If I throw the distance I threw today I will reach the final in Osaka. There is a lot left in the tank and I think that the javelin (incident) was a blessing in disguise because I am not tired. I have got a lot of energy left and, as long as I stay healthy, I think I can throw better.”
At 34, Harmse became only the fifth athlete in the history of the All Africa Games, which began in 1965, to win three successive titles in the same event. Champion in 1999 and 2003, he joins the discus throwers, Namakoro Niare, from Mali (1965, 1973,1978 – no Games were held in 1969) and Nigeria’s Adewali Olukoju (1987, 1991, 1995), Maria Mutola, from Mozambique, at 800m (1991, 1995 and 1999) and Ethiopian 1,500m runner, Kutre Dulecha (1995, 1999, 2003).
So, after one gold over three days, from 26 finals, South Africa added four in just over three hours from eight finals. Other highlights included Margaret Simpson’s victory, for Ghana, in the women’s Heptathlon, an event which yielded bronze for Beatrice Kamboule, from Burkino Faso. Busy Beatrice has contested not only the Heptathlon but the 100m Hurdles, in which she was fourth, and the Triple Jump, in which she was seventh. Apparently, she is having a rest today, the closing day of the five-day Games.
An eagerly-awaited women’s 10,000m proved a triumph for the 23-year-old Ethiopian, Mestawet Tufa, over 40-year-old Edith Masai. In a tactical race, Tufa kicked strongly 800m from home to win in a time markedly slower than the 31:00.27 she recorded last month, still the quickest in the world this year.
David Powell for the IAAF
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