Follow all the live coverage, video, and results from the 2021 Twizza South African Track & Field Championships at Dal Josafat this week. The championships will take place from Thursday, April 15 through Saturday, April 17 and you can check out all the live streaming videos HERE on the Squared SPORTS YouTube channel. Live Results are available HERE as well.
On the open day of the competition, sprinter Akani Simbine, Caster Semenya and 400m hurdler Wenda Nel were among the highlighted athletes at the meeting.
Semi final 9.82 (+2.8). Finals tomorrow. #project21 #summer16 #trackandfield #100m #sprint #adidasrunning pic.twitter.com/lKsZftFjWM
— Akani Simbine (@AkaniSimbine) April 15, 2021
In the men’s 100m, Simbine opened the championships with a quality time of 10.11 seconds (+0.3 ms/) to win his heat and returned to clocked a wind-aided 9.82 seconds (+2.8 m/s) in his semi-finals heat. Also dipping under the 10-seconds barrier in the semis was Tlotliso Leotlela, who ran a wind-assisted 9.92 seconds in the company of a 3.6 m/s following wind speed.
Thando Dlodlo won the second semi-final with a wind-legal +1.5 m/s wind and he posted a time of 10.21 secs, bettering the 10.26 he ran in the heats earlier in the day.
Chederick van Wyk and Thembo Monareng were also among the automatic qualifiers for the men’s 100m finals.
Meanwhile, Wenda Nel recorded a world-leading time of 55.58 seconds to win her heat of the women’s 400m hurdles and improved the previous 2021 world-leading time of 55.65, set on April 2 by Anna Cockrell of USC and USA.
Le Roux Hamman was the fastest in the men’s 400m hurdles semi-final heats with 49.70.
Twice Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya won the women’s 5000m race with a personal best time of 15:52.28. However, the 30-year-old missed the Olympic qualifying standard of 15:10.00.
Elsewhere, Ranti Dikgale qualified the quickest in the men’s 400m with 46.03 seconds, while Zakithi Nene won his heat with the second best time of the day at 46.06.
In the women’s 400m dash, 20-year-old Dalene Mpiti qualified the fastest with a time of 53.68, while Kirsten Ahrens ran 54.62 to take her heat.
Ruswahl Samaai, the 2017 world bronze medalist, booked his place in the final of the men’s long jump after he leaped 8.05m in the qualifiers.
The 2021 Twizza South African Track & Field Championships will continue on Friday with the second day of competition and you will not want to miss the live action.
