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Wayde van Niekerk questions Team SA's selections

Cape Town - Wayde van Niekerk has backed his omitted team-mates from the South Africa squad for next month's IAAF World Championships in London.

On Monday, Athletics South Africa (ASA) confirmed the final 23-strong squad to represent the country at the championships from August 4-13.

As with SASCOC’s Olympic qualification, ASA's qualifying standards are stricter than those set by the world athletics governing body, the IAAF.

Van Niekerk, who memorably took gold in a new world record time in the 400m at last year's Rio Olympics, was joined by rising sprint sensation Akani Simbine in expressing their surprise at the ommission of several of their compatriots.

Those notables who missed out on selection include Henricho Bruintjies (100m)‚ Rynardt van Rensburg (800m)‚ 400m hurdlers Cornel Fredericks and LJ van Zyl‚ and 200m sprinters Alyssa Conley and Justine Palframan.

Van Niekerk and Simbine took to Twitter to voice their concerns.

The South African team to London will consist of 17 men and six women.

23-strong SA team for the IAAF World Championships in London from August 4-13:

Men 

100m

Akani Simbine, Thando Roto

200m 

Akani Simbine, Wayde van Niekerk, Clarence Munyai

400m 

Wayde van Niekerk, Pieter Conradie

10 000m

Stephen Mokoka

Marathon

April Lusapho, Sibusiso Nzima, Desmond Mokgobu

110m hurdles

Antonio Alkana

Long Jump

Luvo Manyonga, Ruswahl Samaai, Zarck Visser

Shot Put

Oratio Cremona, Jaco Engelbrecht

Javelin

Rocco van Rooyen

20km walk

Shange Lebogang

Women

100m

Carina Horn

800m

Caster Semenya

Marathon

Mapaseka Makhanya, Jenna Challenor

400m

Wenda Nel 

Javelin

Sunette Viljoen

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