Athletics Africa Magazine

Athletics South Africa has expressed delight at hosting four other countries who will be competing at the Athletics Grand Prix Series which kicks off in Mangaung on Saturday. The one hour and 30 minutes Track and Field thriller starts at 5.30pm and the programme boasting high level competition, will come to a close at 7.15pm. With this being a year of the IAAF World Championships (28 Sep – 6 Oct Doha, Qatar), the stakes are high and the battle of athletes to meet their respective qualifying criteria and improve the quality of performance, has commenced. The first leg in particular, has put the cat amongst the pigeons attracting Botswana , Kenya , Lesotho , Mauritius and Kingdom of Eswatini on the fray. While these countries will also contest the individual categories, it is the relay part of the series that the countries will show their class and potential to pull down the programme’s curtain at 7.15pm with the battle in the Senior Women 4x100m Relay Final and Senior Men Fin...

The Athletics South Africa Track & Field season steals the spotlight in March when it takes off with the Athletix Grand Prix Series in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Paarl. Seen here (from left to right):  Kyle Whitehall (Liquid Telecom South Africa Chief Executive Officer), Aleck Skhosana (the president of Athletics South Africa) and Michael Meyer (Managing Director of Stillwater Sports).  Photo Credit:  Tobias Ginsberg The first of three meetings will take place at Ruimsig Stadium, Johannesburg on Thursday, 1 March. The women’s 800m is one of many bouts to look out for on the day. Winnie Nanyondo of Uganda looks to be the race favourite with an 800m best of 1:58.63 which she ran in Monaco in 2014. Nanyondo is the Commonwealth Games 800m bronze medallist from 2014 and with a best of 53.72sec in the 400m, Nanyondo has the fastest half lap time on the field. Halimah Nakaayi has experienced both the World Championships (2017) and the Olympic Games (2016) and w...