Cape Town - All eyes will be on Kyle Blignaut in the men’s shot put at the opening Athletics South Africa Grand Prix meeting today, but there will also be a number of competitive races in the season-opener in Bloemfontein.
Tokyo Olympic finalist Blignaut is aiming for a big 22-metre throw this year, but his coach Pierre Blignaut (no relation) told Independent Media recently that he will build up slowly to that point after coming off a recent injury.
Kyle’s personal best is 21.21m, but is eyeing the SA record of 21.97m, set by Janus Robberts in 2001.
“I am ambitious. I want to improve and focus on the big throw in this big competition. I’ll be happy with a 21.80m throw, and then maybe something special can happen for me this season. I love competition, and therefore that’s (why) I work hard on conditioning and so that I suffer many injuries. I am ready to make history,” Kyle said in an ASA press release this week.
He will have some solid competition at the Mangaung Athletics Stadium as well in the shape of Jason van Rooyen, who pushed him all the way at the SA championships in Pretoria last year.
Van Rooyen also made it to the Tokyo Games, but was unable to reach the final, although he has a personal best of 21.14m, just 7cm off Blignaut.
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On the track, the two hurdles races will see experienced and fresh talent on show. It’s a straight shoot-out between African recordholder Antonio Alkana and former SA record-holder Ruan de Vries in the men’s 110m hurdles, while Marione Fourie is the favourite in the women’s 100m hurdles in the absence of Rikenette Steenkamp.
The women’s 400m will see a couple of hurdles athletes doing some speed and endurance work, with Taylon Bieldt, Gezelle Magerman, Zeney van der Walt and Wenda Nel on the start list.
In the sprints, the men’s 100m will see Chederick van Wyk and Luxolo Adams duel it out for the honours, while Namibian stars Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi will go head-to-head in the women’s 100m.
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