While international visitors stole the show on Monday night, led by sprint sensation Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, South African athletes again gave some fine performances at the second leg of the ASA Athletix Grand Prix in Tshwane.

Among the foreign stars at the World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger meeting held at Tuks Athletics Stadium, Tebogo was the standout performer, charging to a comprehensive victory in the men's 400m sprint.

He completed the one-lap race in 44.29 seconds, setting the fastest time in the world this year and clipping 0.46 off his personal best in a rare appearance over the 400m distance.

Focussed on reaching the podium in the 100m and 200m sprints at this year's Olympic Games in Paris, the 20 year-old phenom said he would now take a short break before starting his build-up to the multi-sport showpiece.

"I'm pretty happy, even though this wasn't exactly the race plan we wanted to execute," Tebogo said.

"We wanted to see if the body would get tired over the last 100m, which it did. We'll go back to the drawing board and analyse the video, but I think this will be my last 400m race until further notice."

Meanwhile, in the men's 800m, Kethobogile Haingura ran the race of his life, storming down the home straight to win convincingly in 1:43.94.

Haingura clocked the fastest two-lap time ever run on SA soil. His time was also the fastest run anywhere in the world this year, as he secured automatic qualification for the Paris Olympics.

Prudence Sekgodiso was the best of the South African athletes, kicking with 250 metres to go and dropping the rest of the women's 800m field, charging to victory in 1:59.93.
She was well clear of Charne Swart, who did well to try and stick with her compatriot but settled for the runner-up spot in 2:02.37.

While Sekgodiso had hoped to compete over 3 000m as well, the event was removed from the programme because of insufficient entries. She was nonetheless pleased to get in another solid 800m performance in the early stages of the season.

"We were going for a sub-nine minutes in the 3 000m, and in training I really showed that we could go for that time. So I was disappointed not to do that, but the journey continues," Sekgodiso said.

"I feel good about this year. My goals are to compete in more Diamond League races and reach the 800m final at the Olympic Games (in Paris in August)."

In the men's 400m hurdles, Le Roux Hamman dipped under 50 seconds for the second time in less than a week, taking second place in 49.35. He was edged out by Marc Anthony Ibrahim of Lebanon who won the race in 49.26.

Long jumper Cheswill Johnson won his specialist event with a leap of 8.07m. He was the only athlete in the line-up who cleared eight metres.

"A superb evening of wonderfull performances it was," said James Moloi, the President of Athletics South Africa. "It's really a great feeling seeing athletes from other countries benefitting from what we've put together in this Grand Prix."

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About Athletics South Africa:
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