RUFUS BOTHA
The speedster from the Technical High School Louis Botha in Bloemfontein, Ronald Rakaku is the fastest youth (under 18) athlete on the African continent.
Rakaku lined up in the 100 m final at the African Youth Games in Botswana last weekend with the best youth sprinters Africa could throw at him and clinched the gold in a brilliant time of 10,52.
His time is remarkable as the race was run into a headwind of minus 1,1 metres per second. Rakaku beat the best youth sprinter of Botswana, Baboloki Thebe (10,58) into second place in front of his home crowd. Sydney Siame (Zambia, 10,65), who finished third was way off Rakaku’s blistering speed.
However, Rakaku’s best time was set up in his victory in the heats. He stopped the watches at yet another magnificent time of 10,49. This time the wind was on his side, coming from behind at 1,8 metres per second. This is within the legal wind from behind which is two metres per second.
Both Rakaku’s times compares well with the South African record (10,36) of Leigh Julies which was set in 2002. Add to this – both times earns him a place in the top-10 best times of all time by South African youth sprinters.
At the same meeting, Nadia Meiring (Sentraal) stood her ground in the hamer throw for girls. She won the silver medal with a throw of 55,25 m. Meiring was however beaten by more than 10 metres by the Egypt’s best, Esra Habe who landed her iron ball at a gigantic 66,26 m.
The Zimbabwian, Tapiwa Chetsanga who finished third in a pathetic 27,68 m just underlined that Africa’s youth athletes still have a long way to go in technical events such as the hamer throw before they can match up with their counterparts from the rest of the world.
