Jobodwana takes 200m crown at Athletix GP
Anaso Jobodwana took the first step towards regaining his past form last week when he reclaimed the 200m crown at the Athletix Grand Prix in Ruimsig.
On a typically chilly Highveld evening in Ruimsig, the athletes who took part in the first leg of the inaugural Athletix Grand Prix series at Roodepoort Athletics Stadium on Thursday, 1 March, were on fire.
The lineup for the evening featured several athletics stars from all over the world.
The first South African star to take to the track was none other than hurdles star, LJ van Zyl.
Despite a few thinking that the 32-year-old might be past his prime, Van Zyl ran an impressive time of 49,64sec in the 400m hurdles to place second behind Great Britain’s David Greene.
In the 100m ‘A’ race, Heinricho Bruintjies lost out to Simon Magakwe by one tenth of a second, with the two clocking times of 10,28sec and 10,27sec respectively.
Perhaps the greatest surprise of the evening, was the men’s 1 500m where 10 000m world silver medallist Joshua Cheptegei failed to even finish on the podium.
The event was instead taken by Kenya’s George Manangoi, with a time of 3.40.62.
The build-up to the 200m race was intense, with all eyes on the rivalry between Clarence Munyai and Anaso Jobodwana.
Both athletes, who are good friends and enjoy each other’s competition, ran impressive runs to kick off the 2018 season.
Jobodwana had been struggling with an injury throughout 2016, which heavily affected his form in 2017 when his best time in the 200m was, by his standards, a measly 20,62sec.
He seemed to put those bad memories behind him when he ran a terrific time of 20,13sec, placing just ahead of Munyai who ran a time of 20,18sec.
Munyai had been in control of the race, leading Jobodwana for the first 150m before Jobodwana turned on the afterburners to edge Munyai out.
The two will compete against each other again in the second leg of the Athletix Grand Prix series at Tuks Athletics Stadium on Thursday, 8 March.
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