More golds for S. Africa at 16th African Athletics Championships

JOHANNESBURG, May 3 (Xinhua) -- South African athletes continued to dominate the 16th African Athletics Championships on another windy day in Addis Ababa on Saturday.

Three more gold medals by Chris Harmse, Hennie Kotze and Sunette Viljoen, in the hammer throw, 110m hurdles and javelin respectively, brought the team's golden haul to nine. South Africa ended the penultimate day with a tally of 17 medals, the South African Press Association reported.

A proud 34-year-old Harmse won his fifth consecutive African title since 1998 with a new championship record of 77.72m and narrowly failed to achieve the Olympic qualifying distance of 78.50 meters.

"The competition was very special for me. The hammer event got a special position on the timetable and the encouragement of the spectators was fantastic. It was also my best of the year," Harmse told reporters afterwards.

The 110m meters hurdles was only a final and Hennie Kotze (24) did very well to win his first major gold medal with a time of 13.95 seconds. Two Nigerians athletes occupied second and third places.

Sunette Viljoen, former African record holder, won the javelin by more than three meters after a winning effort measuring 55.17m. She also won the African gold in 2004. Her team mate and holder of the African record, Justine Robbeson, did not take part after suffering a serious ankle injury during a training session on Thursday.

Thuso Mpuang, a 24-year-old Free State University sprinter who recently surprised by winning the SA Students' 200m title with an Olympic qualifying mark of 20.57 seconds, continued his excellent form on Saturday when he won both his races and recorded the fastest time in the semi-finals of 20.97 seconds. He should stand a very good chance of winning one of the three medals in Sunday's final.

The Championships end on Sunday when the remaining 15 finals will be contested.