A year ago, Clarence Munyai arrived at Varsity Athletics hoping to post a competitive time of around 20.60 in the men’s 200m – in the schools section. His goals were soon pushed forward when he qualified for the Olympics, clocking a time of 20.39!
“When I was leading the race I realised that it was going to be a fast time because Gift (Leotlela) is in good form and he was pushing hard,” said Munyai at last year’s 200m event at Varsity Athletics. “However, I honestly did not expect to run 20.39. I expected my time to be about 20.60.”
With an Olympic experience under his belt at the age of just 19, he is aiming to break the South African record, set by Akani Simbine last year.
“My goal is to break Akani’s (Simbine) 100m SA record of 9.96 seconds, and if I can do it at Varsity Athletes, even better,” said Leotlela.
His friend and rival, Gift Leotlela, is the man to beat in the men’s 100m at next week’s first Varsity Athletics meeting. Leotlela is a Tuks student, the current ASA Under-20 100m champion and also an Olympic athlete who joined team SA in Rio last year.
Leatlelo won the Under-18 race in the 100 metres in a time of 10.24s at Varsity Athletics last year, missing Olympic qualification by just 0.08 seconds at the event, but went on to join the Olympic team alongside friend, Clarence Munyai in August.
With all that experience under their belts, both will be primed for success on the track next week. Akani Simbine will keep a close eye on that clock.
PBs
Clarence Munyai
100m: 10.28
200m: 20.36
Gift Leotlela
100m: 10.20
200m: 20.47
Varsity Athletics takes place on 3 March in Potchefstroom and 31 March in Pretoria.
The post Friends, rivals and Olympians who could break SA sprint records next week appeared first on .