Athletics South Africa has succeed in obtaining the services of high ranking Senegalese long jumper, Ndiss Kaba Badji to compete at the Germiston meeting.
Badji, with a career best distance of 8,20m to his credit in the long jump, finished sixth at the Beijing Olympic Games with a distance of 8,16m and he will provide Mokoena, who has already jumped 8,15m this year, with much needed competition.
The long jump will be one of the many highlights at the meeting as South Africa's best athletes will be striving for to achieve a qualification standard
for the IAAF World Championships in Berlin in August. The meeting will also see participation by a number of top international athletes from Germany, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Mbulaeni Mulaudzi in his first outing in the800m event will be up against his old rival, Hezekiel Sepeng, as well as a number of the young lions who have impressed so far this season. Adriaan van Wyk, Warren Hendriks and Dirk Gouws will go all out for victory against their illustrious opponents.
Sunette Viljoen has been dominating the javelin scene this year and already qualified for the World Championships. This time an onslaught on the South African record will be her aim.
Germany's top women hammer throwers, including current world champion, Betty Heidler will be in action against South Africa's best while Chris Harmse will have competition from Alexander Ziegler (Germany) in the men's hammer throw. Saudi Arabia's top 110m hurdlers, Ahmed Khider and Sami Al Hyder, and 400m athletes, Ismael Sibiane and Yousif Mashrahi, all coached by South African Hennie Kotze, will provide a stiff test to Shaun Bownes in the 110m hurdles and Ofentse Mogawane, Pieter Smith and Zimbabwe's Talkmore Nyongani in the 400m respectively.
Bandar Sharahili who is a sub 50 secs 400m hurdler will be up against LJ van Zyl in this event and a battle royal can be expected.
The Mauritian group, led by top international stars Stephan Buckland and Eric Milazar will test South Africa's best in the sprints while Tsholofelo Thipe and Isabel le Roux will resume their rivalry in the women's sprints.
The top athletes competing in the other events will ensure that the crowd will be entertained throughout the meeting.
The meeting already starts at 16:45 with the women's hammer throw which will be followed by the men's hammer throw. The meeting will end at 21:20 when South African 4x100m relay teams will take their counterparts from Mauritius and Saudi Arabia.
