SOUTH African women's triple jump champion Charlene Potgieter smashed Charmain Barnard's 20-year-old national record at the Athletics SA interprovincial meeting in Germiston on Saturday.
Potgieter twice recorded jumps of 13.61m to shatter Barnard's record, which she set in Bloemfontein in 1992, by 15cm.
"I actually thought it was going to be a little bit further but I am happy," she said. "The ice has been broken so it can only go downhill from here. It's going to get easier."
Potgieter, 27, had come close to breaking the record at the SA Championships in Durban last year with a personal best leap of 13.45m to miss the mark by 1cm. This time she improved the national mark on her first attempt and repeated this distance with her third jump.
Patience Ntshingila, who finished second in Germiston with a leap of 13.34m, had made a claim to the record last year with a distance of 13.50m in Potchefstroom in November. But the mark was disallowed because the wind metre was broken.
Potgieter needs to jump 14.30m to qualify for the London Olympic Games and she is confident that she can reach that distance.
"I am jumping further than I jumped today, in training, so it is a question of getting my rhythm right," she said.
Former SA men's shot put record holder Burger Lambrechts made a welcome return to the sport after an absence of two seasons. Lambrechts qualified for next month's World Indoor Championships in Turkey with a throw of 20.12m, missing the Olympic qualifying standard by 38cm.
Triple jump record falls
SOUTH African women's triple jump champion Charlene Potgieter smashed Charmain Barnard's 20-year-old national record at the Athletics SA interprovincial meeting in Germiston on Saturday.
Potgieter twice recorded jumps of 13.61m to shatter Barnard's record, which she set in Bloemfontein in 1992, by 15cm.
"I actually thought it was going to be a little bit further but I am happy," she said. "The ice has been broken so it can only go downhill from here. It's going to get easier."
Potgieter, 27, had come close to breaking the record at the SA Championships in Durban last year with a personal best leap of 13.45m to miss the mark by 1cm. This time she improved the national mark on her first attempt and repeated this distance with her third jump.
Patience Ntshingila, who finished second in Germiston with a leap of 13.34m, had made a claim to the record last year with a distance of 13.50m in Potchefstroom in November. But the mark was disallowed because the wind metre was broken.
Potgieter needs to jump 14.30m to qualify for the London Olympic Games and she is confident that she can reach that distance.
"I am jumping further than I jumped today, in training, so it is a question of getting my rhythm right," she said.
Former SA men's shot put record holder Burger Lambrechts made a welcome return to the sport after an absence of two seasons. Lambrechts qualified for next month's World Indoor Championships in Turkey with a throw of 20.12m, missing the Olympic qualifying standard by 38cm.
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