Unbeaten on home soil‚ Akani Simbine and Caster Semenya will test their skills abroad on Friday when they compete against line-ups that resemble their finals at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
They are among four South Africans in action in the Diamond League opener in Doha‚ the first stop on the international calendar en route to the world championships in London in August.
Simbine‚ who ended fifth in Brazil‚ faces two of the four men who finished ahead of him‚ runner-up Justin Gatlin of the US and Canada’s bronze medallist Andre De Grasse.
Ben Youssef Meite of the Ivory Coast was sixth behind Simbine‚ who is looking to maintain his early season form‚ during which he has notched up five sub-10-second runs.
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“We had a good last two weeks of training and rest after the SA championships‚” said coach Werner Prinsloo. “He’s in good shape.
“He wants to be a consistent sub-10 runner and that time should get him top three‚ maybe top two.”
Simbine’s 9.89sec personal best makes him the third-fastest behind Gatlin (9.74) and Jamaican Asafa Powell (9.72) tomorrow.
For Gatlin‚ De Grasse and Meite‚ this will be their first 100m of the year‚ making Simbine the early pace-setter with the fastest season’s best with his 9.92.
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Olympic champion Semenya will face silver medallist Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi and Kenya’s bronze-winner Margaret Wambui as well as Poland’s fifth-placed Joanna Jozwik.
Spicing it up in her debut 800m is world 1500m champion and Olympic silver medallist Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia.
In Rio‚ all eight finalists broke two minutes‚ a mark that none have beaten so far this season; for most‚ this is their first two-lapper of the year.
The other SA athletes in action are 400m hurdlers LJ van Zyl and Cornel Fredericks‚ who missed the recent SA championships because of injury.
- TMG Digital/TMG Sport
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