South Africa's best young talent on show in Pretoria

The Championships, which has drawn a total of 1360 entries from all of ASA's provinces and Mauritius, will conclude a highly successful track and field season and promises to be filled with highlight upon highlight as the best athletes challenge for the medal honours.

Youth athletes will have an added incentive to put their best foot forward. The Championships serves as a trial for the selection of the provisional squad to compete at the prestigious IAAF World Youth Championships in Bressanone, Italy, from 8 to 12 July.

A number of Under 23 events will also be held at the Championships. A few athletes with their eyes on the IAAF World Championships in Berlin in August will be in action and will add to the lustre of the Championships.

Isabel le Roux has come close to reaching the A qualifying standard for the World Championships and with the competition from Nombulelo Mkenku she can achieve her ideal performance in the 200m while Pieter Smith, by far the country's top senior 400m runner at the moment, will try to shave off the last few hundredths of a second to qualify in the 400 metres. Opposition for him will come from Sabelo Bhodoza, Rapula Sefenyatso and Shane Victor.

The men's sprints can also provide top competition when the likes of Kagiso Kumbane, Roscoe Engel, Brent Stevens, Johannes Mosala, Tshegofatso Meshoe and Sefenyatso clash while new find, Pharson Magagane, will again like to make his mark in the 1500m event.

However, the stars at the Championships will be the array of youth and junior talent on show, and judging by some of these athletes' performances during the recent Yellow Pages Series top, and in some cases world class, performances can be expected.

Caster Semenya is the name on everyone's lips. This lanky 18-year old athlete has taken the country by storm clocking the fourth best time ever of 2:00,58 at Germiston on 6 March. Running on her home track she can well provide the world class highlight of the Championships by clocking a sub 2 minute time in the 800 metres. Two other juniors to watch are Done Vermaak and Anuschka Nice both capable of running under 2:05, 00.

The field events can provide several outstanding performances and a national record or two can fall by the wayside.

Annemie Smith ,17-year old South Western Districts athlete, not only shattered the SA Youth record in the hammer throw at the SA Senior Championships at Stellenbosch but her best distance of 52,86m makes her the second best hammer throw athlete in the country at the moment. A new SA record is well within her grasp.

In the junior hammer throw event Marizette Badenhorst, ranked number one in the country, will be out to better her own national record.

“ASA is looking forward to a very successful championship. We are creating opportunities for our young athletes to thrive and realize their dreams. We had a successful season this year and these championships is a culmination of our success”.

Other athletes to watch out for are Cheyne Rahme in the pole vault youth men who already has a best height of 5,25m this season, Lionel Abrahams and Stefan Brits in the youth long jump and Rorisang Ramonnye in the junior women's 400m.

The programme starts both days at 06:30 with the walking events and will last till the evening.