#TuksAthletics: Cremona proves he is on track for a good performance at the Games

Posted on March 18, 2018

Orazio Cremona (Tuks) continued his lone crusade in the shot put yesterday at Tuks by winning the title at the South African Championships for the umpteenth time with a distance of 20.71m.

Although it was not quite the distance, Cremona was hoping for he had reason to be excited about his performance. Purely judging by the current statistics the only Commonwealth athletes to have thrown better distances are New Zealand’s Tomas Walsh (22.06m), Canada’s Tim Nedow (20.77m) and Australia’s Damien Birkinhead (20.75m). The logical deduction, therefore, is that he could medal at the Games. 

“This is probably the best form I will be going to a Commonwealth Games. I know I am capable of throwing further as I missed out on a couple of big throws today (yesterday).”

Cremona was fourth at the 2014 Games in Glasgow.

The Tuks stalwart points out that in 2014 he was also throwing distances of 20.61m by March the problem was that the Commonwealth Games was only in August. Now it is in April, and he is confident of carrying his current form until then.

His only regret is that he has had no real competition up to now as Jaco Engelbrecht his main rival is injured. 

“This whole season it has been me against myself which is far from ideal. Especially compared to what has been happening in our sprints which is pretty much like world championship standards. Luckily I know what to do.”

According to him, the challenge is to remember to execute what he does during training in a competition.

“During training I am working on improving my technique all the time. The problem for me is that in a competition I am all ‘revved up’ just trying to throw further that leads to me making mistakes that cost me valuable centimetres.” 

The Tuks-athlete admits that he would like to compete at least once or twice more before the Games. So far this season he has only competed three times.

“The Commonwealth athletes from the northern hemisphere have had the advantage of competing indoors. I am hoping that there might be a shot put event at next week’s Liquid Telecom Athletics Grand Prix Series Meeting in Paarl. Otherwise, I might go and compete in Sasolburg in two weeks time.”

**Carina Horn (Tuks) won the South African women’s 100m title in an equally impressive time of 11.08s. It is just 0.05s slower than the national record time she ran during the semi-final. 

Tebogo Mamatu (Tuks) was second in a personal best time of 11.27s with Cassidy Williamson (KZN) third in 11.31s. It is possibly one of the fastest finals ever at the South African Championships.

 

 

- Author Wilhelm de Swardt

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