Team SA’s trio of Olympic men’s 200m semifinalists failed to make the final on Tuesday.
Veteran Anaso Jobodwana, SA record holder Clarence Munyai and youngster Shaun Maswanganyi faced a strong field to make tomorrow’s medal showdown in Tokyo, but were blown away by the competition.
London 2012 bronze medalist Jobodwana finished last in his race, won by 17-year-old American Erriyon Knighton, who cruised home in 20.02 seconds.
Munyai came sixth in his duel, from which world champion Noah Lyles of the US made it through to the final.
Maswanganyi came fourth in his race with a time of 20.18, which was not good enough to make the final eight.
In the men’s 110m hurdles heats, Antonio Alkana crashed out in a time of 13.55s and Lesiba Mashele failed to make the 16-man cut for the 5000m final with his 13 minutes 48.25 seconds time after running out of steam late on.
From the track to the field, where there was better news, as Kyle Blignaut’s 20.97m shot put effort saw him into tomorrow morning’s final, while Jason van Rooyen’s 20.29 saw him miss the cut.
Jo Ane van Dyk’s 57.69m javelin throw was well short of qualification for the final, finishing 12th in Group B.
Christopher Cosser’s Olympic campaign also came to an end when he finished 16th his combined climbing competition.
Team SA IN TOKYO TODAY
Cycling
Jean Spies – Men’s Sprint qualifying (10.30am)
Charlene du Preez – Women’s Keiren Heat 2 (11.15am)
Climbing