Zeney van der Walt provided the only smiles for South Africa at the world championships in Tokyo on Monday morning, advancing past the women’s 400m hurdles heats.
The 25-year-old, who anchored the mixed 4x400m relay twice on Saturday, had enough in her legs to charge her way into fourth spot in the final heat to secure automatic passage to the semifinals on Wednesday.
Her 55.32sec effort, more than a second off her 54.25 season’s best from June, happened to be the slowest qualifying time of the morning, slower even than the four time qualifiers.
At the Paris Olympics last year Van der Walt ran a 53.90 personal best in the semifinals to miss a spot in the final by seven-hundredths of a second.
Her compatriot Rogail Joseph, who was the next fastest in the Paris semifinals, faded to seventh spot in her heat in 56.20, capping a season in which she failed to dip under 56.00.
In the women’s pole vault qualifying round, Miré Reinstorf was unable to clear the bar at the opening height of 4.25m. She had been clear of that only twice in her career, going 4.35 to win the African Games in Accra last year and again at the national university championships in Pretoria in May.
In the men’s marathon, which started with a false start and ended with a photo finish that separated Tanzanian winner Alphonce Simbu from Amanal Petros of Germany by three-hundredths of a second, Elroy Gelant ended 33rd in 2hr 16min 32sec.
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