Sunday Times E-Edition

Caster’s world champs qualification on a knifeedge

By DAVID ISAACSON

● Caster Semenya will learn this week if she has qualified for the world championships in the US next month, but SA’s crack men’s 4x100m relay team is almost certainly out.

The qualifying window ends at midnight tonight and by yesterday afternoon Semenya was hanging on to a spot in the 5,000m by her fingernails, lying 42nd out of 42 places.

After falling short of the qualifying time that would have secured her automatic entry for the global showpiece in Eugene, Oregon, from July 15-24, Semenya still has a chance of an entry through world ranking points.

But five athletes were within seven points of her 1,148 points, making it a tight race to the death.

Fifteen SA athletes were in line to qualify on world ranking points, although two of them were also precariously positioned like Semenya— Ryan Mphahlele was on the final 45th spot in the men’s 1,500m and discusthrower Victor Hogan was lying 30th out of 32 berths.

With several national championships in the Americas and Europe this weekend, there could be changes by the end of today.

The men’s 4x100m relay is set to be one of the victims of late qualifications, which would represent a major fall for an outfit that was among the best on the planet.

But from the moment the foursome triumphed at the World Relays in Poland in May last year, they’ve gone backwards.

They bungled the first handover in the heats at the Tokyo Olympics, and then they were stripped of the World Relays gold after Thando Dlodlo tested positive for a steroid.

Now they couldn’t even book a spot among the top 16 nations.

SA had been clinging to the final 16th spot, and even that was thanks to their junior team that had clocked 38.51sec at the 2021 under-20 world championships.

The senior outfit was unable to improve on that time at a meet in Botswana and again at the African championships in Mauritius.

The Nigerians ousted them this week by running 38.34 at their national championships. The performance must still be accepted by World Athletics and by yesterday afternoon SA were still officially on the list.

The women’s 4x400m team that won at the African championships in 3min 29.34sec are nowhere to be seen on World Athletics’ qualification list, even though that time should place them 16th.

Athletics SA (ASA) board member Jean Verster said they had queried this with the world governing body.

Another route of qualification is winning continental championships, but two of SA’s eight African champions have been omitted

— Miré Reinstorf in the women’s pole vault and Allan Cumming in the men’s hammer throw.

Verster said World Athletics had explained they weren’t happy with their levels of performance, without going into details.

The men’s 4x100m team exclusion will suit Clarence Munyai who wasn’t included on ASA’s provisional team earlier this week, apparently because of his decision not to run the relay at the African competition.

World Athletics requires all 100m and 400m entrants to compete in their respective relays, but now Munyai — who qualified on time in the 100m and is also on track to get into the 200m field — no longer has that obstacle.

Verster said athletes would have to pass fitness tests, adding that even Wayde van Niekerk, who qualified for the 400m on June 29 last year, would have to prove some level of form.

More than 30 SA athletes are on track for qualification.

Sport | General

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2022-06-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-26T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://times-e-editions.pressreader.com/article/282153589963148

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