The challenge for the talented youngsters competing in the 400m-hurdles final on Saturday in Germiston seems on face value to be relatively simple beat Wenda Nel (Tuks) and become the new South African women's champion. 

But then again in any sport, there is never such a thing as a comfortable victory. Things tend to get complicated especially when you up against a wily campaigner like Nel. 

The statistics certainly favours her. Since 2009 she has competed in 10 finals and was victorious on eight occasions. The last time she got beaten at the South African Championships was in 2013 in Stellenbosch. 

Nel who is training with Hennie Kriel's Grigora-group qualified with ease for Saturday's final running 56.50s in the heats. The former world junior and youth champion, Zeney van der Walt (Tuks), qualified running 56.86s.

So Saturday's final could be a repeat of last year when Nel only managed to pip Van der Walt on the line. The two athletes were separated a mere 0.04s.

Nel admitted afterwards to have had a slight case of the jitters while lining up as it was her first 400m-hurdles race of the season. 

"It is always the same for me with every first race. There is that sense of expectation because you are not sure what is going to happen. To me, it is always a sort of icebreaker."

In spite of her decade of the continued dominance of local 400m-hurdles racing, Nel is hesitant to take anything for granted.

"A final is a final. Anything can happen. For now, I am not too concerned about running a fast time. I want to execute a perfect race and hopefully defend my title."

Last year's South African men's 400m-hurdles champion, Lindsay Hanekom (Tuks), is the inform athlete at the moment. He won his heat beating Sokwakhana Zazini (Tuks) with ease. Hanekom's winning time was 49.76s with Zazini running 50.80s. He is so far the only athlete who has been able to dip under-50s on two occasions. Hanekom's winning time during the Bloemfontein Grand Prix was 49.64s.

The former Commonwealth Champion, Cornel Fredericks, who won his heat in 50.76s is the only other to have dipped under 50 seconds so far this season. He was second in Bloemfontein running 49.66s.

Margo-ChenePretorius (Tuks) defended her South African title in the women's hammer throw with a personal best distance of 61.89m. Her previous best effort was 61.75m which she threw during the Gauteng-North Championships.

Apart from retaining her title Pretorius was quite excited about how the women's hammer throw-final played out.

"It is the first time that two of us have been able to throw further than 61 metres in the same competition. We are still a long way of from being able to compete against the world's best, but at least the standard of our throwing is slowly improving," said Pretorius who has so far this season won every competition she competed at by throwing further than 60 metres.

In the final three of her attempts had gone past 60 metres.

Marga Cumming was second throwing 61.27m and Stefanie Greyling third with a distance of 57.24.