By GARY LEMKE in Swakopmund
Team SA were quick to make a statement of intent as the track and field action began at the Region 5 Games at the Vineta Stadium in Swakopmund on Monday. There were four Team SA athletes contesting finals and all four of them won medals – three gold and one bronze.
Long jumper Ashlynn Norman and 3000m runner Michael Bekker bagged gold in the morning session and were joined as Games champions by Erik Senekal, who produced a character-filled performance to claim the discus title under a cloudless afternoon sky.
Both morning events took place around the same time and while the purists will say that Bekker was the first to set the ball rolling, others might argue that Norman’s winning distance of 5.38m was set with a jump that took place before the seven-and-a-half lapper.
No matter, the pair will forever be remembered as gold medallists for Team SA in an international competition, the first of their careers. And they will have many more years to wear their country’s colours with distinction.
The 17-year-old Norman actually bookended her event perfectly – a 5.38m effort on her opening jump and a 5.38m on her sixth and final attempt. Of the two, which felt the better jump? “Definitely the last one,” she replied. “On my first jump I was super nervous, so much so that I had a no jump with y second attempt. By the last jump I was much more relaxed.”
Bekker is still 16 and in Grade 10, but he was composed and in control for most of the 3000m race. He was happy to go to the front after the first 400m and then reeled off laps of around 73, 74 seconds. He was joined by a bunch of other runners for a few laps, and that group then shrunk to four by the time they took the bell for the final lap.
Inside that last 400m Bekker, also experiencing his first trip outside of South Africa, lengthened his stride and kept the after-burners on down the home straight, a 62sec last lap seeing him stop the clock at 8min 36.91sec.
“I’m really happy. My plan was to go to the front and control things as that’s the way my coach and I train. I feel good when I run like that. This is my personal best time so everything feels really good. I actually prefer the 1500m so I’m hoping that I can win a medal there as well.”
Norman has a younger brother and sister and said her long jumping journey started at primary school. “I was more of a sprinter but the teacher said we needed a long jumper for a competition, so I stepped in and found I was good at it.”
One could suggest that she is a natural and certainly had the beating of her opposition in Namibia, where she can now call herself a Region 5 Games gold medallist.
Both Senekal and Dewald Bezuidenhout lined up in a field of six for the boys discus and won gold and bronze. They were lying second and third at halfway, before Senekal pulled out of throw of 50.16m with his fourth attempt, which was enough to secure the gold. Bezuidenhout’s fourth attempt (45.12m) was also his best.
“I knew I had a 50-metre throw in me, but this was the first time I have used a 1.75kg discus, having always thrown with a 1.50kg. I felt a bit of pressure because this is a big meet and before my fourth throw my distances had been 44m, 45, and 46m and I was consistently climbing.
“But I knew that wasn’t going to be enough to win (49.13m was the gold medal position at that stage). But I concentrated hard on my technique and pulled out a 50m with fourth throw. I had been hoping for 50m, so I’m very excited and proud,” Senekal said.
Photos: ROGER SEDRES
