With South African athletes producing a string of impressive performances around the world during the past few weeks, Maties' very own Justine Palframan and Jean-Maré Senekal delivered season's and personal best times respectively while Victor Hogan achieved another Olympic qualifying distance in the discus item.

Palframan, the World University Games champion in the 400m, as well as Wayde van Niekerk, world champion in the 400m and Akani Simbine, World University Games champion in the 100m, arrived in Kingston, Jamaica, on 4 June to spend a week training at the Racers Track Club, home of the famous Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

Palframan, Van Niekerk and Simbine then all competed at the Racers Grand Prix over the weekend. Palframan took seventh place in the women's 400m event in a season's best time of 53.01s.

She described her time in Jamaica as a "great experience" and a "step in the right direction".

Palframan has achieved a qualifying time for the Olympic Games but need to prove her fitness after struggling with injury earlier this year. This injury prevented her from defending her national titles in the 200m and 400m at the South African national track and field championships in April this year.

She will now compete in the Adidas Boost Grand Prix event in Boston, USA, to race another 400m before returning to Durban for the 2016 CAA African Senior Championships to compete in the 200m event, according to her coach Mohamed Ally.

In Europe, Jean-Maré Senekal set a personal best time in the women's 400m hurdles, clocking 57.89s to win her heat at the Georges Caillat Memorial Meeting in Geneva.

On 2 June, Maties discus thrower Victor Hogan took second place at the IAAF Diamond league competition in Rome with a throw of 64.03m. A week earlier he achieved another Olympic qualifying distance with a throw of 65.03m in Dessau, Germany.

At home, Shaun de Jager achieved a season's best time in the 400m at the BestMed Tuks Athletics meeting in Pretoria on Saturday, 11 June, winning his heat in a time of 45.70s.

All four these athletes were selected for the African Senior Championships which takes place in Durban from 22-26 June 2016.

Ally, Sport Manager: Athletics at Stellenbosch University, explained that athletes were selected based on their best 2016 performances during the recent South African season.

The team also includes the following Matie athletes: Shaun de Jager (400m); Keagan Fourie (high jump); Jodie Sedras (pole vault); Stefan Brits (long jump); Samantha Pretorius (long jump); Jacobus Kruger (hammer throw) and Nienka du Toit (heptathlon).​

Photo: Jean-Maré Senekal