South African Sports News – 17 August

Willem’s boot puts WP back on top
Western Province moved back to top spot on the Currie Cup log when they nar­rowly defeated the Blue Bulls 15–12 in front of a packed Newlands in Cape Town on Saturday even­ing. WP were briefly over­taken by the Sharks who thumped the Leopards in Phokeng the pre­vi­ous even­ing, but Saturday’s win means the Cape out­fit move back to the top of the stand­ings with 27 points.

The Sharks are a close second with 26 and both teams now enjoy a com­fort­able lead over the chas­ing pack with third placed Griquas six points adrift on 20. WP’s vic­tory also means they remain unbeaten in the com­pet­i­tion and although it is still early days yet, Allister Coetzee’s side must cer­tainly be favoured to lift the coveted Currie Cup trophy this season.

The Bulls put up a good fight on Saturday though, and can take heart from their per­form­ance. WP dom­in­ated the open­ing 40 minutes, enjoy­ing a glut of pos­ses­sion and run­ning con­stantly at the Bulls who defen­ded like Trojans to keep their foes at bay. Wave after wave of attacks from the striped jer­seys were repelled by the Bulls who put in some crunch­ing tackles at key moments. Springbok full­back Zane Kirchner was par­ti­c­ur­larly impress­ive on defence for the vis­it­ors, with one of his many tackles pre­vent­ing an almost cer­tain five pointer shortly before half time.

WP had moved the ball quickly down the back­line and were look­ing threat­en­ing, but an aggress­ive driv­ing tackle from Kirchner broke up the move­ment and stopped the danger. So instead of being a whole stack of points down at the inter­val, the Bulls found them­selves only three adrift after WP fly­half Willem de Waal (pic­tured) had slot­ted two pen­alty kicks to a single effort in reply from oppos­ite num­ber Jacques-Louis Potgieter.

The Bulls’ excel­lent defence aside, WP also had them­selves to blame for not being fur­ther in front by repeatedly opt­ing not to take kick­able pen­al­ties, pre­fer­ring instead to kick for touch and gain ter­rit­ory. This tac­tic enabled the Bulls to stay in con­ten­tion when a couple of three point­ers might have put WP out of reach.

The Bulls went on the attack after the restart, clearly intent on tak­ing the fight to the home side who must have still been won­der­ing how they were only three points ahead, des­pite dom­in­at­ing the lin­eouts, the scrums and almost every other facet of play in the open­ing 40 minutes. Potgieter soon lev­elled the scores with his second pen­alty after an infrindge­ment from the home side and at 6–6, it was anyone’s game.

Although the shoe was now on the other foot, with the Bulls launch­ing most of the attacks and WP soak­ing up the pres­sure, the unflap­pable De Waal put his team back in front with his third strike on 52 minutes and increased their lead seven minutes later with another pen­alty. Potgieter closed the gap to three points with a third pen­alty on 73 minutes after a sus­tained period of pres­sure which saw the vis­it­ors push hard for a try. De Waal then frus­trated the Bulls with another pen­alty to put WP six points clear once more only for Potgieter to close the gap again with his fourth strike one minute from reg­u­la­tion time.

The men from Pretoria then threw everything they had against their rivals in the clos­ing minutes but WP’s defence held firm to con­sign the Bulls to their third defeat of the sea­son. The Bulls are now fourth in the stand­ings on 17 points – just two ahead of the fifth paced Cheetahs who suffered a dis­ap­point­ing defeat to the Lions in the earlier Saturday game.

WP square off against the Sharks in a top of the table clash at the Absa Stadium in Durban this com­ing Saturday while the Bulls host Griquas at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Friday. The Sharks, who have been play­ing excel­lent rugby as of late, could well be the first side to defeat WP this sea­son, while the Bulls will have to be at their very best to see off the chal­lenge of the always dan­ger­ous Griquas.

Scorers
Western Province 15 – Penalties: Willem de Waal (5).
Blue Bulls 12 – Penalties: Jacques-Louis Potgieter (4).

Other res­ults (from left to right)
Friday
Griquas 58 – Pumas 25
Sharks 51 – Leopards 6
Saturday
Lions 30 – Cheetahs 26

Upcoming fix­tures
Friday, August 20
Bulls vs Griquas – Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria – 7pm
Cheetahs vs Leopards – Vodacom Park, Bloemfontein – 7pm
Pumas vs Lions – Puma Stadium, Witbank – 7.10pm
Saturday, August 21
Sharks vs Western Province – The Absa Stadium, Durban – 7.10pm

Currie Cup log (After six rounds)
Pos  Team      Points
1.    WP             27
2.    Sharks        26
3.    Griquas       20
4.    Bulls           17
5.    Cheetahs     15
6.    Lions           10
7.    Pumas          5
8.    Leopards      4

Meanwhile, the Springbok squad to face the All Blacks in the his­toric Vodacom Tri-Nations test in Soweto on Saturday has been announced. The 24-man squad boasts a wealth of exper­i­ence and New Zealand, des­pite com­fort­ably defeat­ing the Boks 32–12 and 31–17 in their last two meet­ings, are likely to be in for a tough time.

The South Africans will be itch­ing to prove their detract­ors wrong by record­ing a con­vin­cing vic­tory over their tra­di­tional rivals from the land of the long white cloud, and play­ing on home soil in famil­iar con­di­tions will be a dis­tinct advant­age. Whatever hap­pens, the match is likely to be an intense, phys­ical encounter with no quarter asked or given. Kick-off at the FNB sta­dium is at 5pm.

Squad
Backs: Gio Aplon, Juan de Jongh, Jean de Villiers, Bryan Habana, Francois Hougaard, Butch James, Ricky Januarie, Zane Kirchner, Wynand Olivier, JP Pietersen, Morné Steyn.
Forwards: Schalk Burger, Jannie du Plessis, Francois Louw, Victor Matfield, Dewald Potgieter (pic­tured), Chiliboy Ralepelle, Danie Rossouw, John Smit (cap­tain), Juan Smith, Pierre Spies, Gurthrö Steenkamp, CJ van der Linde, Flip van der Merwe.

Jacobs and Ingram power South Africa to vic­tory
The South African Emerging Players squad cruised to a com­fort­able 60-run vic­tory over India at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane on Saturday, get­ting their limited-overs cam­paign in the Emerging Players Tournament (EPT) off to a per­fect start. The com­pet­i­tion is played in the 40-over format, which suited the South African play­ers down to a tee after their suc­cess in the MTN40 domestic com­pet­i­tion this past season.

South Africa notched up a respect­able 239 all out in their innings after a shaky start which saw them lose open­ers Reeza Hendricks (8 runs) and Jon-Jon Smuts (9) early on. Davy Jacobs (pic­tured), who scored a rapid 79 off 51 balls, and Colin Ingram (71 off 66) put on 104 for the third wicket, while next man in Ryan Bailey weighed in with a use­ful knock of 33 to take the score to 201/4 with just over 10 overs remaining.

However, once the free-scoring Bailey was back in the pavil­ion South Africa lost their way some­what, shed­ding their six remain­ing wick­ets for the addi­tion of just 38 runs. Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, who was instru­mental in mop­ping up the tail, was the pick of the Indian bowl­ers, record­ing impress­ive fig­ures of 5/57. In reply, India could only muster a paltry 179 all out as the South African bowl­ers dom­in­ated pro­ceed­ings with Basheer Walters (2/56) and Craig Alexander (2/25) knock­ing over the top order and the rest of the attack apply­ing the fin­ish­ing touches.

Chawla scored a use­ful 44 to go with his five wick­ets, but his excel­lent all-round per­form­ance was not enough to stave off defeat for India. The South Africans, who fin­ished last in the 20-over com­pet­i­tion, will be encour­aged by their excel­lent per­form­ance and must now be con­fid­ent of mak­ing it through to the finals of the 40-over competition.

‘Blade Runner’ shat­ters 400m world record
Oscar Pistorius (pic­tured) clocked an excel­lent 47.04 secs over 400m in the T44 dis­ab­il­ity class at the Diamond League meet­ing in London on Saturday to smash his own world record. The 23-year-old South African, nick­named the  ‘Blade Runner’ for the car­bon fibre prosteth­ics he uses to run, improved his global best by 0.45 secs and beat Paralympic bronze medal­list Ian Jones of Great Britain into second place.

The power­ful Pistorius estab­lished the pre­vi­ous record of 47.49 in win­ning the Paralympic gold medal in Beijing in 2008. A four-time Paralympic cham­pion, Pistorius set a per­sonal best of 46.02 against able-bodied com­pet­i­tion in Italy last month, and again went under 47 secs in the able-bodied B-race in London on Friday night, fin­ish­ing sev­enth in 46.93 .

Unfortunately those times can­not be con­sidered for world record pur­poses because the races were not rat­i­fied by the International Paralympic Committee. However, Pistorious’ per­form­ance in London eas­ily improved his pre­vi­ous T44 stand­ard as he con­tin­ues to widen the gap between him­self and the rest of the world in his class. “A world record is always a good thing to fin­ish the sea­son off on,” Pistorius said. “I learned a lot from Friday’s race where the rainy con­di­tions were not what I am used to,” he added.

Pistorius’ com­pat­riot, World Championships 1500m semi-finalist Peter van der Westhuizen, had a dis­ap­point­ing out­ing in the men’s mile on Saturday, fall­ing more than 10 secs short of his per­sonal best. The 25-year-old fin­ished 13^th and last in 4 min, 5.52 secs with Kenyan Augustine Choge tak­ing first place in a per­sonal best of 3:50.14.

Another South African, Commonwealth 400m hurdles cham­pion LJ van Zyl, was also well below his best, fin­ish­ing eighth and last in his event on Friday in a slow 50.64 secs. Van Zyl fin­ished 2.52 secs behind American Bershawn Jackson who claimed vic­tory in 48.12. The next Diamond League meet­ing, the pen­ul­tim­ate leg of 14 this sea­son, will take place in Zurich on Thursday.

Mokoka wins SA champs while Khumalo con­quers the Climb
Defending cham­pion Stephen Mokoka (pic­tured) and Irvette van Blerk made full use of a fast route and ideal weather con­di­tions to enter­tain the crowd en route to vic­tory in the South African 10km Championships in Paarl on Saturday. Gauteng North’s Mokoka, who cap­tured the national title last year in Stellenbosch, clocked 28 min, 23 secs to beat off Lungisa Mdedelwa of Athletics Transkei (28:28) and Central Gauteng’s Sibusiso Nzima (28:29).

“I came to Paarl with the aim of defend­ing my title and get­ting my hands on the R50 000 fin­an­cial incent­ive on offer for dip­ping under the 28:06 mark. But our lead­ing group of about 15 ath­letes went through the halfway mark in 14:31 which was too slow,” said Mokoka who will now switch focus to the inter­na­tional scene when he com­petes in 10km races in Prague and the UK next month.

Van Blerk added the national 10km women’s crown to the South African half-marathon title which she claimed in Port Elizabeth last month. The Central Gauteng ath­lete clocked 33:15 to take first place ahead of Western Province’s Zintle Xiniwe (33:19) and Thozama April of Gauteng North (33:53).

“I saw Xiniwe start­ing to slack off in the final kilo­metre and dug deep into my energy reserves to catch up with her before sprint­ing home,” said Van Blerk. “The hill on the way to the sta­dium really took a lot out of me and I thought I was never going to get to the top of it, but I am just so delighted to get the win here today,” she added.

Meanwhile, Mr Price Athletic Club ath­lete Prodical Khumalo (pic­tured) won the annual Witness Capital Climb road race in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday, cov­er­ing the 15km dis­tance in 50:45. Another Mr Price run­ner, Professor Mollen, took second spot in 51:17 while Sbonelo Duma of Boxer Athletic Club was third in 51:17. Sarah Gray won the women’s race in 1:07:53.

The pun­ish­ing course com­prises a tor­tu­ous 6km climb fol­lowed by a 9km down­hill to the fin­ish and is not for the faint hearted. “I knew I was going to win the race at the 5km mark,” said Khumalo who hails from Marian Ridge in Durban. “I trained hard for this event, doing most of my pre­par­a­tion in the hills sur­round­ing Durban,” he added.

Khumalo, who has per­sonal bests of 45:00 for 15km, 2:16:00 for 42,2km and who fin­ished 11^th in this year’s Comrades Marathon, was hop­ing to break the race record of 49:02 set by Eric Biyase in 1998, but ended up a little short of that mark. “This is the first time I have com­peted in this event and the uphill sec­tion was quite tough, but I will be back to defend my title next year,” he confirmed.

Yours truly, a reg­u­lar run­ner of the race for the past 13 years, clocked a per­sonal worst of 2:03:50 and must con­cede that at 37, his best run­ning days are far behind him. Oh well, what can you expect from a part-timer with a pen­chant for chocal­ates and french fries – two food­stuffs you are aren’t likely to find on the menu of any ser­i­ous athlete.

Hekkie fails to impress in Texas
International Boxing Organisation (IBO) light-flyweight cham­pion Hekkie ‘The Hexecutioner’ Budler (pic­tured right) remained unbeaten when he defeated Evaristo Primero on a split decision in a 10-round non-title bout title in Laredo, Texas, on Saturday night. The 22-year-old Budler, who made two trips to the can­vas from illegal low blows, appeared for­tu­nate to get the decision with one judge scor­ing the con­test 97–93 for Primero and the other two hand­ing in cards of 96–94 and 98–92 for the South African.

The 33-year-old Primero, who was born in Mexico but lives in El Paso, Texas, star­ted quickly and landed sev­eral over­hand rights to Budler’s head. The busier Primero was mar­gin­ally ahead after seven rounds, but Budler increased his workrate through the eighth and ninth stanza’s to pos­sibly take the rounds only for Primero to have a strong tenth.

However, the judges decided that Budler had done enough to secure vic­tory although the 98–92 ver­dict was totally unjus­ti­fi­able. Nevertheless the end res­ult was another win for ‘The Hexecutioner’ who moved his record to 17–0 with five knock­outs while Primero, who has not won a fight for nearly nine years, dropped to 14–14-1 (7 KO’s).

Budler missed a golden oppor­tun­ity to impress in a tele­vised bout that was meant to show­case his tal­ents to a wider American audi­ence. However, per­haps the Johannesburg res­id­ent needed more time in Texas to pre­pare for the fight and had taken his oppon­ent too lightly. Whatever the reason, Budler will have to try and ensure this kind of thing doesn’t hap­pen to him again if he wants to pro­gress in his box­ing career.

Meanwhile, the International Boxing Federation (IBF) junior light­weight title fight between local pugil­ists Cassius ‘Mr Shy Guy’ Baloyi (37–4-1; 19 KO’s) and Mzonke ‘The Rose of Khayelitsha’ Fana (29–4; 12 KO’s) has been res­ched­uled for a second time. The 12-round con­test will now take place on Wednesday, September 1 at Carnival City in Brakpan.

In another IBF title fight on the Branco Sports Productions bill, local boxer Moruti Mthalane will defend his fly­weight crown against com­pat­riot Zolani Tete.  The more exper­i­enced Mthalane boasts a record of 25–2 (16 KO’s) but will have his work cut out for him against the undefeated Tete who has won 13 straight fights, 11 of them by knockout.

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Photo Credits:
Photo – Willem de Waal: Source – www.timeslive.co.za
Photo – Dewald Potgieter: Source – www.timeslive.co.za
Photo – Davy Jacobs: Source – www.chevroletwarriors.co.za
Photo – Oscar Pistorius: Source – www.exposay.com
Photo – Stephen Mokoka: Source – www.news.bbc.co.uk
Photo – Prodical Khumalo: Source – Guy Mortimer
Photo – Hekkie Budler: Source – www.goldengloves.co.za