LJ van Zyl and Wenda Nel booked their tickets to the Rio Olympic Games in style at the SA Senior Championships in Stellenbosch on Friday night. The 30-year-old Van Zyl ran a 49.35 to take gold ahead of Cornel Fredericks (49.75) and Constant Pretorius (50-seconds flat).

The 27-year-old Nel blitzed the women’s field in her first 400m hurdles race of the season as she finished in 54.85 (Olympic standard is 56.20).  Anneri Moolman finished second in 58.66 and Youth Olympics gold medallist Gezelle Magerman was third in 59.03.

In the 100m women’s race, Alyssa Conley scored the title in 11.36s with Carina Horn in second place in 11.37 followed by Tamzin Thomas third in 11.67s.

Lebogang Shange crossed the line in 1 hr 20 mins and 42 secs to claim victory in the 20km walk at the South African Senior Athletics Championship in Stellenbosch on Saturday.  Wayne Snyman was second in 1:20:46 and Sizwe Ndebele third in 1:28:58. The times set by both Shange and Snyman are the fastest in the history of race walking at a South African Championship.  Shange and Snyman both again qualified for the Olympic Games in Rio.

Henricho Bruintjies won the men’s 100m sprint in 10.17sec while training partner Akani Simbine finished in second place in 10.21. 

Other results saw Orazio Cremona won the men’s shot put with a heave of 19.85m but still 65cm off the Games qualifying time, while Chad Herman finished second in Javlin event with a throw of 76.81.
In the men’s Decathlon, Fredriech Pretorius finished 1st overall with 7482 points.

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