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Oscar to open season in PE
2009-02-17 12:04
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Johannesburg - Oscar Pistorius will be making his debut in this year's Yellow Pages Series in Port Elizabeth on Friday night.
Double amputee Pistorius, nicknamed the Blade Runner, will start in the 400m for the first time this season and will also take part in the final two meetings of the series in Stellenbosch and Germiston.
The first half of the 2009 Series saw some outstanding performances in Potchefstroom, Tshwane and Durban respectively.
Three athletes, Sunette Viljoen (javelin), Khotso Mokoena (long jump) and Ruben Ramolefi (3000m steeplechase), achieved the IAAF A qualifying standards for the IAAF World Championships in Berlin in August.
Viljoen followed her achievement in the first meeting in Potchefstroom with two more B qualifying performances in Tshwane and Durban while LJ van Zyl (400m), Janus Robberts (shot put) and Robert Oosthuizen (javelin) also achieved the B standard.
Possibly one of the highlights of the first three meetings was the 1 500m for men in Durban when three athletes Juan van Deventer, Tshamano Setone and Mbulaeni Mulaudzi dipped under 3:39:00 to achieve the B standard.
Promising athletes Andre Olivier and Peter van der Westhuizen also came home under the 3:40,00 mark to make this race the best seen in South Africa for more than a decade.
All this augurs well for the last three meetings.
In Port Elizabeth, Pistorius will come up against a tough field in the 400m.
Ofentse Mogawane, who has been campaigning at indoor meetings in Europe, LJ van Zyl, Pieter Smith and Sibusiso Sishi, will go up against him.
Mulaudzi, Setone, Van der Westhuizen, Johan Cronje, Windy Jonas, Samson Ngoepe and the evergreen Hezekiel Sepeng will line up in the 1 500m and another fast time can be expected.
Andre Olivier will take on the likes of Warren Hendriks, Adriaan van Wyk, Ettienne Plaatjies and Samuel Sepeng in the 800m.
Robert Oosthuizen and Hardus Pienaar will both be out to achieve the A qualifying standard in the javelin while Janus Robberts will also be looking for a 20m effort in the shot put for men.
The 1 500m for women will see the talented Phalula twins in action and judging by their form this past weekend a fast time can be expected.
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