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Janice Josephs show in PE meeting

Janice Josephs exploded in the long jump at the fourth Yellow Pages Series meeting in Port Elizabeth on Friday night with a world class distance of 6,75m ( wind 1.0m).

The 26-year old Josephs exceeded the A qualifying standard for the IAAF World Championships in Berlin by three centimeters.

Josephs started the competition with a below par jump of 5,88m, had a no jump on her second attempt before she landed a 6,50m on her third attempt. Two more no jumps followed before she landed the big one.

Pieter Smith was not far behind. The University of Pretoria student is improving in leaps and bounds and posted a personal best time of 45,96 secs - only 0,01 secs outside the B qualifying standard beating a strong field which included LJ van Zyl (46,49 secs) and Ofentse Mogawane (46,83 secs).

Hannes Hopley can feel very satisfied with his first outing in the new season. Hopley won the men's discus with an excellent distance of 62,36 m -missing the B qualifying standard by a mere 14 centimetres

Elizna Naude had a solid performance in the discus for women with a distance of 58,42m - only eight centimeters short of the IAAF B qualifying standard for the World Championships. She will also participate in the Yellow Pages Series meetings in Stellenbosch and Germiston and a distance exceeding 60 metres is on the cards.

Janus Robberts won the shot put with a distance of 19,55 metres and will be pushing for 20 metres at the next meetings.

The Phalula twins built on their good performances this year with Lebo taking the honours in the 1500 metres in a time of 4:14, 16. Lebogang came home second in 4:16, 84.

The windy conditions hampered Ruben Ramolefi a good performance in the 3000m steeplechase but he still won the event in a time of 8:27, 98 which is an IAAF B standard qualifying performance.

Nineteen year old Andre Olivier, one of the most promising middle distance athletes in the country had his first outing in the 800 metres when he led from start to finish to win in 1:47, 00 beating fast finishing Adriaan van Wyk (1:47, 40) into second place.

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