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Cape Town - Olympic athletes, Khotso Mokoena and Sunette Viljoen, will compete in the eighth leg of the Samsung Diamond League Aviva London Grand Prix. The competition is scheduled over two days and will take place on 13 and 14 July.
Mokoena’s best this season in the men’s long jump was at Yellow Pages III in Pretoria on 20 April, where he jumped 8.29m reaching the Olympic qualifying standard for the first time This result gave him a 5th place world ranking. Since then, the 27 year-old Olympic silver medallists competed at six other competitions, with a best of 8.20m at a Diamond League meeting in Doha, Czech Republic on 11 May.
Australia’s Henry Frayne, with a season best of 8.27m, is one of the other competitors in tonight’s long jump competition. Frayne won the silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul earlier this year. Along with Australia’s Mitchell Watt and Germany’s Alan Camara, he should be one of the strongest contenders.
The first day of the Samsung Diamond League London Aviva Games will be broadcast live on SS2 tonight from 20:00-22:00
SA champion and record holder, Sunette Viljoen, will compete in the women’s javelin throw on day two of the competition.
Viljoen currently holds the world leading distance of 69.35m after surpassing reigning Olympic Champion Barbora Spotakova’s (CZE) of 68.73m at the Samsung Diamond League in New York on 9 June 2012. Viljoen won that event with a new personal best while the Czech athlete recorded her best of the season.
Tomorrow(Saturday) night in London, the battle should be between Viljoen and Spotakova. The two will go head to head, with Spotakova leading 2-1 this season. Both athletes competed at the Golden Spike in Ostrava, Czech Republic on 25 May where Viljoen finished 5th with Spotakova winning the event. Thereafter Viljoen finished second at the Golden Gala in Rome on 31 May.
The German athlete Christina Obergfoll will also be back in the equation after her absence at the meeting in New York. The Olympic bronze medallist is currently ranked third in the world with her best this season of 67.04m at St Wendel in Germany on 10 June.
The line-up also includes the likes of current European Champion, Vira Rebryk (UKR), currently ranked 5th in the world with 66.86m and Britain’s Goldie Sayers. Sayers finished 4th at the 2008 Olympic Games and her best this season was achieved at the Golden Gala in Rome on 31 May. She finished third with 64.73m.
The second day of the Samsung Diamond League London Aviva Games will be broadcast live on SS7 on Saturday, 14 July from 16:00-18:00.
