The second of the two legged Varsity Athletic Series hits Stellenbosch on Thursday 7 April and once again there are a number of mouth-watering clashes to look forward too.
Magerman out for revenge against Senekal
One of the most eagerly awaited match-ups is in the women’s 400m hurdles as Tukkies’ Gezelle Magaerman looks to turn the tables on Jean Marie Senekal.
Magerman was leading the race in the first meeting on 18 March, only to lose her rhythm as she approached the final hurdle, allowing Senekal to snatch the win. Senekal will be racing in front of her home crowd and will no doubt want to repeat the performance. Magerman is still making the transition from Junior to Senior athlete and will have learned a valuable lesson at UJ. Senekal can expect a hungry and more focused Magerman.
Palframan faces Semenya
In her first competitive 400m race of 2016, Matie Justine Palframan will face an in-form Caster Semenya. Palframan won the 200m at the UJ leg of Varsity Athletics and has run one 400m race this year. She clocked 55.64sec at the Boland Provincial Championships in Stellenbosch on 12 March. Semenya on the other hand has run a personal best of 51.47sec in Potchefstroom on the same day.
The time is still the third fastest in the world this year. So whilst Palframan has the support of the home crowd, her opponent is in awe-inspiring form and will be difficult to catch. Semenya on the other hand could drag Palframan to one of her best times ever if the Maties athlete can stick to Semenya who won the UJ 400m in 52:54sec.
Men’s and Women’s Long Jump features Samaai and Prinsloo
Ruswahl Samaai has already hit a qualification standard in the men’s Long Jump. Samaai who competes for UJ hit 8.18m on 27 February in Germiston and represented South Africa at the World Indoor Championships on 20 March where he finished in 5th place at his first-ever indoor competition. Samaai had three jumps over 8m in Portland, showing a consistency that his opponents would do well to take note of.
He faces the exciting youngster Dylan Cotter who also competes for UJ. Cotter has also gone over 8m this year. His 8.16m leap in Germiston on 13 February is still his best performance to date. Samaai is the favourite to win this competition, but a solid effort by Cotter would give UJ valuable points in the overall competition. Cotter won the competition on 18 March for UJ with a leap of 7.86m.
Lynique Prinsloo is back again in the women’s long jump. Her jump of 6.43m at the UJ Stadium in the first leg was good enough for the win. She beat arch rival Samantha Pretorius of Maties by over 20cm. Prinsloo has fond memories of Coetzenburg as she won the first of her three National titles there and will be hard to beat on the day. Already she is merely one centimetre off the Olympic Qualifying Standard of 6.70m. Prinsloo jumped 6.69m in Germiston on 27 February.
Van Rensburg challenged by young pretender, Faro
Another intriguing battle awaits in the Men’s 800m. UJ winner Rynhardt van Rensburg will face amongst others the up and coming Duran Faro, son of the former 1500m runner Esau Faro. Duran is the U23 South African Champion in 800m, but in Van Rensburg he faces a wily competitor who has improved remarkably in the last two years. Van Rensburg has raced sparingly so far in 2016. His first competitive 800m race was at the Varsity Athletics Meeting at UJ on 18 March where he narrowly beat Faro less than half a second. Van Rensburg clocked 1:50.95 to Faro’s 1:51.28.
By Manfred Seidler
