Southern African youths battle in Pretoria with Sudtirol in mind

A total of 150 athletes from 11 of the 14 Southern Region countries will be in action in the Southern Region Youth Track and Field Championships which starts today at the ABSA LC De Villiers Stadium, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

The Championships will be the last opportunity for these young athletes to impress the selectors to make the final team to next month's IAAF World Youth Championships in Bressanone, Italy.

Countries represented in the region are: South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Mauritius, Seychelles, Swaziland and Zambia

South Africa has selected a strong team of 24 boys and 20 girls for the Championships and they will make a strong challenge in their bid to top the medal table. Included in the team are a number of athletes who are ranked amongst the top ten in the World.

Jacques de Swart is ranked 3rd in the 400m, Mfumaneko Fadane is 4th in the 3000m, Stefan Brits, 5th in the Long Jump, Simone Meyer 6th in the Discus and Justine Palframan is ranked 15th in the 200m and 7th in 400m.

"We are grateful to South Africa for stepping in to host these Championships which were originally scheduled for Namibia," said President of the Southern Region Athletics, Leonard Chuene.

"The Championships moved to South Africa after the Namibian Federation was suspended by the IAAF at the end of April because of internal squabbles.

"We are also pleased with the eleven member countries who have entered to compete in this event and I am confident that we will continue to see an improvement in the standard of athletics in the Region," he added.

The Championships will start at 09:00 and the last event will take place at 16:40.