Posted: July 14, 2005

Athletics: Glory For South Africa On First Day Of IAAF/Maroc Telecom World Youth Champs

MARRAKESH - South African athletes have never yet won a throwing event gold medal at the IAAF World Youth Championships in their six years history, but last night they came away with two thanks to shot putter Jan Hoffman and javelin thrower Noel Meyer who held centre stage in the Moroccan city of Marrakech.

Hoffman had sealed his title before his fellow countryman added to the tally with a huge winning effort in the final round. But Meyer's win came in sensational circumstances after it seemed he had wrapped up victory with a huge second round world leading effort of 78.01m.

Yet Roman Avramenko, with his very last attempt, landed his spear even further to 79.22m - and it seemed the title was going to the Ukraine. Meyer kept his cool though and his last attempt soared into the night sky before landing at a distance of 80.52m guaranteeing a success he fully deserved.

For more news from the biggest World Youth Athletics competition ever staged, please go to http://www.iaaf.org/wyc05/index.html

Full results, end of session reports, individual reports for all finals and photos can all be found in a special IAAF/Maroc Telecom World Youth Championships section of the IAAF Website.

This afternoon’s final (in local time) include:

18:35: Girls’ Triple Jump                                 
18:50: Girls’ 100m                   
19:05: Boys’ 100m                               
19:40: Boys’ Octathlon                        
19:50: Girls’ Discus Throw                              
20:05: Boys’ 110m Hurdles     
20:50: Girls’ 5000m Race Walk