The 18 year old Clarence Munyai (TuksSport High School) probably became one of the youngest male sprinters to win a title at the South African Senior Championships yesterday in Stellenbosch when he won the 200 metres in a time of 20.74s.

For the Grade 11 learner this certainly was a dream come true. To top it all he was also part of the Gauteng-North 4x100m relay team that won the gold medal in a time of 40.02s.  Munayi is also the South African junior champion (under-20) and he has twice qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio with times of 20.36s.

Judging by what has happened during the first two days of the senior national championships it seems as if the ‘dawn’ of the South African sprinting revival has yet to happen. Last year Hennie Kriel (Tuks/HPC coach) made the bold prediction that South Africa has enough young talent to become one of the three top sprinting nations in the world, the other two being the USA and Jamaica. These words might just turn out to be prophetic.

In Saturday’s 200-metre final four of the athletes were 18 years and younger. It could be argued that the result might have been somewhat different if Akani Simbine did not tear his hamstring in the 100m final. His time of 20.29s is the fastest run so far by a local sprinter this season.  Anaso Jobodwana, bronze medallist at last year’s World Championships in Beijing and SA record holder, missed out on competing at the national championships because of an injury. Wayde van Niekerk, former SA record holder in the 200m, preferred to compete only in the 400m. But it is often said that there is no remarks column in sports. In 20 years from now statistics will still show Munayi as the fastest sprinter in the 200m final and he deserves all the credit.

The results of the 4x100m relay final actually confirmed Kriel’s statement that the best of South African sprinting has yet to happen. WP’s relay team, with two under-20 athletes, finished second in 40.07s and EP, who had three under-20 athletes in their team, was third in 40.97s.  This means that 8 of the 12 athletes in the top three relay squads were under-20 athletes.

It is also interesting to note that the 18-year-old Gift Leotlela, Munayi’s training partner at TuksSport High School, finished fourth in the 100 metres finals in a time of 10.34s. He was beaten by Henricho Bruintjies, who has a best time of 9.97s; Simbine, the current South African record holder (9.96s) and Emile Erasmus, who is 24 years old.

***It was confirmed by a radiologist yesterday that Simbine (Tuks/HPC) has a Grade Two tear in his left hamstring. Werner Prinsloo, his coach, is not yet sure how long he will be side-lined. According to Prinsloo Simbine will consult with the doctors at the High Performance Centre tomorrow to work out a rehabilitation program.

According to Prinsloo when Simbine settled into his starting blocks for the 100 metres final he realized that something was wrong, but he still decided to run.

As a coach Prinsloo was not prepared to comment on whether the injury could have been prevented if Simbine did not have to compete in three 100 metres races on the same day. At a World Championships as well as at the Olympic Games athletes are not expected to race more than two 100 metre races on the same day.

“There were various circumstances that could have led to Akani getting injured,” was Prinsloo’s only comment.