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Cape Town - South Africa's LJ van Zyl progressed safely into the semi-finals of the men's 400 metre hurdles on Monday as he finished second in his heat.
There were six heats on Monday for the men's 400 metre hurdles and 47 athletes were whittled down to 24 for the three semi-finals that are set to take place on Wednesday.
Van Zyl, a former University of Pretoria student, ran in the final heat of the day and impressed by finishing second and clocking a time of 49.12 seconds. The 31-year-old ranked 15th overall in the heats. Kenya's Haron Koech was the runner who won heat six ahead of van Zyl.
It was not all smiles for South Africa though as Le Roux Hamman
(49.72 seconds) and Lindsay Hanekom (50.22 seconds) both failed to
advance after both finishing seventh in heats four and five
respectively.
To put the South African's times into perspective, Jamaica's Annsert
Whyte went quickest on the day as he compiled a blistering 48.37 second
heat.
Van Zyl will need to improve drastically if he is to return to the Rainbow Nation with a medal.
