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It will be a night of international stars at the Roodepoort Stadium in Ruimsig as the first Athletics Grand Prix Series meeting gets underway tonight.

With Wayde Van Niekerk sidelined by injury, the South African flag in the 200m race will be carried by Anaso Jobodwana and Clarence Munyai. But they’ll face competition from seasoned runners like Isaac Makwala of Botswana and Curtis Mitchell of the USA.

Other local luminaries in action tonight include Caster Semenya (800m), long jumper, Ruswahl Samaai and long distance runner (3000m) Dom Scott-Efurd.

The 100m race also promises fireworks, with local boys, Akani Simbine and Thando Roto up against American Justin Gatlin, the current World 100m champion.

The star-studded field will include Kenya’s Julius Yego, who holds the African and Commonwealth record for javelin throw and Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, who was a 10000m silver medalist at the IAAF World Championships London 2017.

Managed by the City of Johannesburg, the Roodepoort Stadium is becoming a major destination for international track and field events. 
It is one of the stadia that enable South Africa to bid for events organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF). 
The stadium has recently undergone some refurbishment.

Athletics South Africa was able to put together this series, thanks partly to the generous sponsorship from telecoms firm LiquidTelecom. 
The tickets for tonight’s event can be purchased from any Pick n Pay outlet or webtickets.co.za for between R50 and R100. The pre programme will be from 18:00 to 18:40, with the main programme running from 19:00 to 20:30. 

​For all media queries, please contact:

Ayanda Radebe
Media Relations Specialist 
(t) 011 407 6677
(c) 060 971 2603
AyandaR@joburg.org.za
Or 
mediaqueries@joburg.org.za​