The Free State secondary schools athletics season is building up to the climax of the national championship.
Multitudes of athletes representing their schools will showcase their talent on Friday (04/03) and Saturday at the Free State Athletics Stadium in Bloemfontein. The top performers will proceed to represent the province nationally.
The athletes reached this stage following their outstanding performance in preliminary events during February.
The previous meeting, on Saturday (26/02), saw even senior athletes such as Kesa Molotsane in action, sharpening their fitness for national and international championships.
The upcoming event will be another showdown of various barefoot runners against counterparts in their running spikes in track events.
The sprinting events, 100 m and 200 m, could be the big attraction, with stardom destined Lucky Moleyane (18) expecting a challenge from his peers.
He continued his dominance on Saturday, winning both sprinting events at much improved times: 10.49 and 20.97 respectively. Lucky’s teammate of Grey College Jarryd Crossman remains the strongest challenger thus far, having finished behind him in both sprinting events: in 10.58 in the 100 m and 21.31 in the 200 m.
Lucky still reigns supreme since his achievement in helping to set a new record in the 4 x 100 m relay at the World Athletics U20 Championship in Kenya last year.
He was part of the winning quartet with Mihlali Xhotyeni, Sinesipho Dambile and Benjamin Richardson.
The South African relay team set a world record of 38.51 on 22 August, and broke the previous world record of 38.62, set by America at the Pan American Games in Costa Rica in July 2019.
According to Elinda Vorster, Lucky’s trainer, the star’s performance is well in line with immediate plans for the 2022 World Athletics U20 championships in Cali, Colombia. The international youth championship will take place from 2 to 7 August.
“We are taking it easy because the season is very long. We are working on improving,” says Vorster.
Lucky’s ability was noted after smashing Grey College’s longstanding record of 22.10 in the 200 m in January 2019 by setting a record of 21.49.
The previous record had stood for 36 years after it was set by Ian Small-Smith and Pierre Swart.
Also in 2019, Lucky achieved a personal best time of 10.64 in the 100 m at the South African Youth and Junior Track and Field meeting in Paarl.
In 2018, at the 20th Grey College OMS Athletics Meeting, Lucky’s personal best in the 100 m and 200 m had been 10.60 and 21.60 respectively. He attained this while at 14 years old.
On Saturday, multitudes of learners will show their mettle in various track and field events, like the 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m, 1 500 m, 5 000 m and 10 000 m races, as well as long jump, high jump, discus throw, hammer throw, the shot put and javelin.
