AFTER a disappointing season last year, former world 800m champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi hopes to get his Olympic build-up off to a cracking start tomorrow.
Mulaudzi said yesterday that he had fully recovered from persistent leg injuries and would be gunning for the Olympic qualifying time of 1min:45.60sec in his specialist event at the second Yellow Pages Series meeting in Potchefstroom.
"One of my training partners has agreed to set the pace, so we're going for the A-standard qualifying time," Mulaudzi said.
"If the conditions are perfect, and if nothing goes wrong, we can definitely go under that."
Mulaudzi, 31, struggled last year, setting his slowest season's best since he was a teenager (1:45.50 in Rome).
Having come off a superb season in 2009, in which he set a 1:42.86 career best in Rieti and won the world title in Berlin, Mulaudzi hopes to bounce back at the London Games in July.
A silver medallist at the Athens Games in 2004, the veteran middle-distance star failed to reach the final in Beijing four years ago, and he hopes to recover his best form in the English capital.
"I had an Achilles tendon injury last year, and I battled with hamstring problems, but I'm feeling strong and I'm 100%," Mulaudzi said.
"The most important thing this season is to try and get on the podium in London."
A host of South Africa's leading athletes were included in the start lists released yesterday for the second leg of the top-flight domestic series this weekend.
Another former global two-lap champion, Caster Semenya, makes her season debut in her specialist event.
Semenya clocked 53.62 seconds to win the women's 400m race in her 2012 opener at the interprovincial athle-tics meeting in Bellville earlier this month.
African record holder Sunette Viljoen squares up against a trio of Czech athletes - former world junior champion Jarmila Klimesova, Irena Sediva and Eliska Klucinova - in the women's javelin throw. One-lap hurdles specialist LJ van Zyl ditches the barriers for his season debut, lining up in the men's flat 400m sprint. - Sapa
Mulaudzi in games mode
AFTER a disappointing season last year, former world 800m champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi hopes to get his Olympic build-up off to a cracking start tomorrow.
Mulaudzi said yesterday that he had fully recovered from persistent leg injuries and would be gunning for the Olympic qualifying time of 1min:45.60sec in his specialist event at the second Yellow Pages Series meeting in Potchefstroom.
"One of my training partners has agreed to set the pace, so we're going for the A-standard qualifying time," Mulaudzi said.
"If the conditions are perfect, and if nothing goes wrong, we can definitely go under that."
Mulaudzi, 31, struggled last year, setting his slowest season's best since he was a teenager (1:45.50 in Rome).
Having come off a superb season in 2009, in which he set a 1:42.86 career best in Rieti and won the world title in Berlin, Mulaudzi hopes to bounce back at the London Games in July.
A silver medallist at the Athens Games in 2004, the veteran middle-distance star failed to reach the final in Beijing four years ago, and he hopes to recover his best form in the English capital.
"I had an Achilles tendon injury last year, and I battled with hamstring problems, but I'm feeling strong and I'm 100%," Mulaudzi said.
"The most important thing this season is to try and get on the podium in London."
A host of South Africa's leading athletes were included in the start lists released yesterday for the second leg of the top-flight domestic series this weekend.
Another former global two-lap champion, Caster Semenya, makes her season debut in her specialist event.
Semenya clocked 53.62 seconds to win the women's 400m race in her 2012 opener at the interprovincial athle-tics meeting in Bellville earlier this month.
African record holder Sunette Viljoen squares up against a trio of Czech athletes - former world junior champion Jarmila Klimesova, Irena Sediva and Eliska Klucinova - in the women's javelin throw. One-lap hurdles specialist LJ van Zyl ditches the barriers for his season debut, lining up in the men's flat 400m sprint. - Sapa
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