National championships kick off with SA seeking world stars desperately

The last time the SA athletics championships went to Potchefstroom in 2017 the sport was in rude health, boasting four Olympic medals from the previous year as well as a much-hyped sprint revolution of youngsters.

But when the 2023 edition kicks off at the McArthur Stadium on Thursday it will be under a cloud of desperation, having not won a major senior medal since the 2017 world championships.

It’s the longest drought in local athletics since readmission in the 1990s; the barren years have stretched across the 2019 world championships in Doha, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 world championships in Eugene, Oregon.

The focus shifts to the world championships in Budapest in August and even the Paris Games next year, and the likely medal hopes for those showpieces will be in action over the next three days.

Wayde van Niekerk, the only survivor of the four medallists at Rio 2016, wants to put the cherry on his lengthy injury comeback with more world championship and Olympic silverware.

Of the other three medallists, middle-distance star Caster Semenya has effectively been barred from competition through the World Athletics gender eligibility rules, javelin queen Sunette Viljoen has retired and long-jumper Luvo Manyonga is serving a doping ban.

Akani Simbine is still seeking his maiden major medal, having finished either fifth or fourth at the past two Olympics and three world championships.

Both Van Niekerk and Simbine are in action on Thursday. The 100m final will be staged at 5.50pm while Van Niekerk will compete in the 400m heats at 3.10pm, although his final is set for Saturday.

Luxolo Adams, who set a 19.82sec personal best in the 200m last season, will be the favourite in the half-lap, with the heats on Friday and the final on Saturday.

Those three were the country’s only individual finalists in Eugene last year.

Then there are a handful of athletes who possess the potential to do damage on the world stage in the future.

Prudence Sekgodiso last year became only the second SA woman after Semenya to break 2min in the 800m, and if she can find another two to three seconds, she could be in medal contention.

Zeney van der Walt, the former double age-group 400m hurdles world champion, finally made her presence felt in senior competition in 2022, winning a Commonwealth Games bronze.

Kyle Blignaut, who finished sixth in Tokyo in 2021, had a below-average season by his own standards last year, but he is eager to extend his personal best into more competitive territory.

Marioné Fourie showed glimpses last year that she could threaten the national 100m hurdles record, although she will ultimately need to go a lot faster than that if she wants to challenge for global glory.

The youngsters who led the sprint revolution back in 2017, notably Clarence Munyai and Gift Leotlela, are men now. They’re 25 and 24, and while it’s not too late for them, bear in mind that Van Niekerk and Anaso Jobodwana were both 23 when they won world championship medals at Beijing 2015.

There are new youngsters coming through, like sprinter Benjamin Richardson.

But time is ticking and the world championships are looming large, with the country looking for its next star.