Athletics-Henriette smashes 200m record, Marie-Helen Rose wins two silver, Dean William captures bronze |04 June 2013

Reigning Young Female Athlete of the Year Marie-Helen Rose grabbed two silver medals in as many days in the discus and shot put events at the University of Botswana in Gaborone, Botswana.

In the discus throw, Rose finished second behind gold medallist Salome Mugabe of Mozambique, but by the time of going to press there was still no news about the distances she threw both the shot put and discus.

Dean William’s best throw in the men’s shot put was measured at 13.87 metres and it was good enough for third place and the bronze medal.

Mauritian Sylvain Pierre- Louis grabbed the gold medal with a best effort of 15.77m – 7cm shy of his personal best of 15.84. Dumisane Fakudze of Swaziland finished second with 13.96m.
On the track, budding sprinter Leeroy Henriette once again proved his sprinting qualities by lowering his own 200m national record.

After registering a time of 21.75 seconds in the heats, Henriette powered to the finish line in the final in a new time of 21.10 seconds – bettering his own prior 21.42-second record, which he set on August 13, 2011 at Stad Popiler during the Indian Ocean Islands Games, by 32 hundredths of a second.

Henriette’s time helped him to fifth place in the final placing of the 200m race.

He also competed in the 100m race, clocking 10.72 seconds in the heat to make the final where he finished seventh with 10.75 seconds.

Young male sprinter Jean-Yves Roseline was disqualified in the 100m race after making a false start, but clocked 22.69 seconds in the 200m heats.

Athletes from Seychelles, Lesotho, Mozambique, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and hosts Botswana took part in the two-day championship at the University of Botswana.

While some athletes were gearing up for various meets in Europe in the coming weeks, others were preparing for the Africa Junior Championships due in South Africa later this month.

G. G.