A crop of talented young local sprinters delivered with style on Thursday night, winning their specialist events, while foreign athletes produced some world-class performances at the first leg of the ASA Grand Prix series in Potchefstroom.

Continuing her comeback from a lengthy injury layoff that derailed her 2023 season, 19 ¹year-old Viwe Jingqi won the women's 200m sprint in 23.55 seconds.

Jingqi finished nearly half a second ahead of runner-up Kayla le Grange who clocked 24.00.

"The time is not something I'm happy about but it's my second 200m of the season so I'm not going to beat myself up about it," Jingqi said.

"There was a headwind but I don't like to blame other things. I'll see what I have to work on, but all in all it was a good race."

In the women's 100m sprint, Leonette Vosloo crossed the line in 11.90 to stun the rest of the field, dipping on the line to edge Norway's Line Kloster (11.91) by 0.01.

Rising South African stars also won the men's 100m and 200m sprints, with Bradley Nkoana clocking 10.40 to take the short dash and training partner Benjamin Richardson winning the half-lap contest in 20.89.

"I'm very happy with the win. The conditions were windy and a bit chilly, so it wasn't a fast time, but we'll take it and move on to the next race. A win is a win," Nkoana said.

"Right now I'm focussing on the national championships later this season and hopefully things will go as well as planned."

Other local athletes who stood out during the main programme included African 400m hurdles champion Zeney Geldenhuys, who won the women's flat 400m sprint in 51.80, and Jerry Motsau produced a solo effort to win
 the men's 3 000m steeplechase in 7:56.

In the field, Olympic finalist Kyle Blignaut produced a best effort of 20.10m to win the men's shot put, while former World U20 Championships silver medallist Brian Raats won the high jump after clearing the bar at 2.25m, whil
Danielle Nolte won the women's long jump with a leap of 6.54m.

Among a strong foreign contingent Olympic silver medallist Jakub Vadlejch of the Czech Republic won the men's javelin throw with a best heave of 87.00m.

Ismail Doudai Abakar of Qatar won the men's 400m hurdles race in 48.68, qualifying for this year's Olympic Games in Paris, while Slimane Moula of Algeria clocked a quick 1:14.52 to take the men's 600m race, and Kethlobogile Haingura of Botswana won the men's 800m race in 1:45.14.

"This is a super start to our domestic track and field season," said James Moloi, the President of Athletics South Africa. "The first competition of the series has already yielded part of what it is meant for which is to assist athletes to qualify for Paris and other international events. We thank everyone for the success of the night."

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Athletics South Africa (ASA) is the national governing body for the sport of athletics (including Track and Field, Cross Country, Road Running and Race Walking) in South Africa, is a member of World Athletics  and the Confederation of African Athletics.  The association was formed in 1995 and is based in Johannesburg. 

ENDS