SA Olympic silver medallist Jo-Ané van Dyk will face champion Haruka Kitaguchi of Japan in Sunday’s Diamond League event in Poland. Photo: Reuters
It has been a memorable few weeks for Jo-Ané van Dyk – and it is about to get even better.
The 26-year-old South African javelin star has been celebrating her Paris Olympic silver medal in fine style since that memorable Saturday night, August 10, at the Stade de France.
Van Dyk’s 63.93m effort in the final secured second place behind Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi (65.80m), and she has been enjoying the sights and sounds of France over the past week, in the midst of Women’s Month in South Africa.
Along with fiancé Johan du Plessis and other family members, Van Dyk has posted photos and videos as they criss-crossed eastern France. One of the places they visited was the town of Colmar, located in the Alsace region near the German border, described as an “old town (with) cobblestone streets, lined with half-timbered medieval and early Renaissance buildings”.
Well, the registered dietitian from Heidelberg in the Western Cape has certainly brought about a renaissance in javelin among South Africans, and Van Dyk will continue on that path by participating in her first Diamond League event of the season later this week.
Having moved on from France to northern Italy, where she has been continuing her holiday at Lake Orta, she will travel to Poland for the Silesia Diamond League event, officially known as the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial, in the city of Chorzow on Sunday.
Despite her Olympic success, Van Dyk’s personal best of 64.22m is shorter than the distances achieved by the entire field in Chorzow, so she will have her work cut out for her is she is to reach the podium once more.
But the two-time African champion will come face-to-face with Japanese Olympic gold medallist Kitaguchi once more, as well as Paris bronze medallist Nikola Ogrodnikova of Czechia, who threw 63.68m in the Paris final, and will be determined to back up her silver-medal performance in order to receive more Diamond League invitations.
Apart from Van Dyk, there will be two other South Africans in action in Poland in the shape of sprinter Shaun Maswanganyi and high jumper Brian Raats.
SA 100m star Akani Simbine has yet to announce when he will return to the track, but did mention on his Instagram page that he is training again following the relay silver in Paris.
“Back to the @diamondleagueathletics circuit we go! Finish strong,” Simbine said, having already qualified for the Diamond League final in Brussels on September 13 and 14.
Maswanganyi is also still basking in the glory of the 4x100m relay silver medal at the Paris Games, but will hope to make a big impression on his Diamond League debut in the 200m – having campaigned for the University of Houston on the NCAA college circuit with great success over the past few years.
In addition to the relay, the 23-year-old from Soweto reached the semi-finals in both the 100m and 200m events. Having run 20.20 and 20.42 at the Olympics, Maswanganyi will hope to go close to his personal best of 19.99 to have a chance of causing an upset against a loaded 200m field in Poland.
Botswana’s Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo headlines the field after posting a blisteringly quick 19.46 African record and world lead for 2024 in Paris, and American silver medallist Kenny Bednarek (19.62) will also aim for revenge.
Raats, who is just 20, did well to qualify for the Olympic high jump final with a height of 2.24m, but could only clear 2.17m in the final.
He will attempt to put the nerves aside on his Diamond League debut, where New Zealand’s Olympic champion Hamish Kerr (2.36m in Paris) will fight it out for top spot with the likes of Italian stars Gianmarco Tamberi and Stefano Sottile.
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