Johannesburg - Rio Olympics-bound sprinting prodigies Clarence Munyai and Gift Leotlela will spearhead South Africa’s charge at the World Under-20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, starting on Tuesday.
While the two teenagers have earned their places for next month’s Games in the 200m, they will first be aiming for silverware over the next five days.
The 22-member team features some of the country’s top junior athletes, including Youth Olympic 400m hurdles champion Gezelle Magerman, and world youth 200m silver medallist Kyle Appel.
Appel will form a potent 4x100m relay team with Munyai and Leotlela, who will both be competing in the men’s 100m and 200m events.
”I didn’t believe it when I saw my name. I thought they might have made a mistake, and I couldn’t contain myself, so I am really happy (earning Olympic selection),” Munyai said.
”Our aim was on world juniors in case they don’t select us, we wouldn’t have anything to worry about but the Olympics was the dream and he goal for me.
”It is an unbelievable, we’ve been saying since January that we would be room-mates in Rio and now we really will be.”Munyai said he would take aim at Riaan Dempers’ South African junior record of 20.16s he set in Germiston in 1995.
”I am going to the world juniors and I am going to try and go for the South African record and after that try to make the semi-final at the Olympics,” Munyai said.
Leotlela’s season’s best 100m time of 10.21s ranks him sixth going into the world juniors, while Munyai is ranked fourth in the 200m.
The previous World Junior Championships held in Eugene, Oregon, in 2014, was the first time South Africa failed to win a single medal since readmission.
African women’s javelin silver medalist Jo-Ané van Dyk will be going into the championships ranked fifth thanks to her personal best heave of 56.22m.The team also includes Burger Lambrechts jr, who is ranked 11th thanks to his shot-put PB of 19.77m.
Lambrecths jr, Jason van Rooyen and Kabelo Melamu will compete on day one.
The Star