The sprinters were the star performers on Friday, as expected, on the first of two days of competition at the ASA Senior Championships, being held at Puk McArthur Stadium in Potchefstroom.

Brushing off the cool conditions in the evening, Olympic finalist Akani Simbine outclassed a quality line-up to reclaim the SA 100m title he won in Stellenbosch two years ago.
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Simbine crossed the line in 9.95, with Olympic 400m champion Wayde van Niekerk dropping down in distance to take the silver medal in 10.04.  Thando Roto earned bronze, also clocking 10.04.
“I’m pretty happy with the time, but I came here to get back the title I lost last year, so I’m very happy to reclaim my title,” Simbine said.

Pre-race favourite Carina Horn, who narrowly missed the SA record (11.06) when she clocked 11.10 in the semifinals, pulled out of the women’s 100m final due to illness.

In her absence, defending champion Alyssa Conley stormed to victory in 11.41, edging Tebogo Mamatu into second position by 0.03.

In other events, Le Roux Hamman won a tightly contested men’s 400m hurdles final in 49.35, ahead of former title holder LJ van Zyl (49.52) and Constant Pretorius (49.83) with Gauteng North sweeping the podium.

Wenda Nel, the defending champion, won the women’s one-lap race over the barriers by more than three seconds, securing gold in 55.16.