Athletics South Africa names team for World Athletics Relays championship
The team captains are Akani Simbine (men) and Zeney Geldenhuys (women).
FILE: South Africa's Akani Simbine at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Photo: Jewel SAMAD / AFP
JOHANNESBURG – Athletics South Africa (ASA) has selected 19 athletes to be included in Team SA for the World Athletics Relays championship to be held in Guangzhou, China on 10 and 11 May 2025.
The team captains are Akani Simbine (men) and Zeney Geldenhuys (women).
The national squad will compete in four events, including the men's 4x100m, the men's and women's 4x400m and the mixed 4x400m.
"We are excited about the prospects of this national team based on how some of our athletes have been doing well so far in their build ups since the year began. A lot is expected from the team as a result of their performances this far,” said the President of Athletics South Africa, James Moloi.
The men's 4x100m team will be anchored by national 100m record holder Akani Simbine. He will be joined by Bayanda Walaza and Bradley Nkoana, both of whom joined Simbine in the sprint relay team that earned South Africa the silver medal at last year's Olympic Games in Paris, as well as national 200m champion Sinesipho Dambile, Retshidisitswe Mlenga and Tsebo Matsoso.
The World Athletics Relays Guangzhou 25 will welcome the world’s best sprinters as teams compete for relay places at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25.
The programme for the World Athletics Relays comprises five relay disciplines – men’s and women’s 4x100m and 4x400m, plus the mixed 4x400m – and 32 teams will be entered in each of those.
The men's 4x400m team features Zakithi Nene, world junior 400m champion Udeme Okon, former world junior champion Lythe Pillay, Gardeo Isaacs, Tumisang Shezi and Mthi Mthimkulu. Nene, Pillay and Isaacs all formed part of the quartet that earned silver in the 4x400m event at the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas last season.
"The athletes are obviously highly motivated and largely boosted by our successes at this global championships last year. We congratulate all athletes who have made it to the team and it is their opportunity to prove that they were selected to add numbers. We ask God to lead them and we also wish them an enjoyable competition in China” said Moloi
The women's 4x400m relay team will be led by national one-lap champion Miranda Coetzee, and she will be joined by hurdles specialists Zeney Geldenhuys and Hannah van Niekerk, as well as Shirley Nekhubui, Precious Molepo and Jada van Staden.
Isaacs, Coetzee and Nekhubui will also turn out in the mixed 4x400m event, along with Leendert Koekemoer, who broke the SA U20 men's 400m record when he clocked 45.03 seconds at the ASA Senior Track and Field Championships in Potchefstroom last week.
It will be the seventh edition of the World Athletics Relays and the first time the event is held in China, after previous editions in the Bahamas, Japan and Poland.