Teboho Molapo
MASERU — Lesotho’s Golden Girl, Selloane Tšoaeli, is targeting a combined events championship in Potchefstroom, South Africa, at the end of the month as a marker for the rest of the year.
The competition will be Tšoaeli’s first action of 2011 as she looks to build on a successful 2010.
Last July Tšoaeli earned herself the Golden Girl tag when she became the first Lesotho athlete to win gold at the African Senior Championships in Kenya which is the continent’s showpiece track and field event.
Tšoaeli also won bronze in the combined events competition at the championships to cap one of the finest individual performances by a local athlete at international level.
As a result of that display Tšoaeli then became the first Mosotho to take part in the IAAF Continental Cup last September.
Last week Tšoaeli said the two-day combined events championship in South Africa which starts on January 28 would determine her plans for 2011.
The combined events include the 100 metres hurdles, 200 metres and 800 metres run, javelin, shot put, long jump and Tšoaeli’s speciality, high jump.
“After that competition I will know the overall points and my performance in the high jump as well,” she told the Sunday Express.
“That will determine what I do this year.”
Tšoaeli holds the national high jump record of 1.78 metres and the national combined events record.
In what is another hectic year, Tšoaeli will be looking to improve on her performance at last October’s Commonwealth Games where she finished outside the medals.
This year will see the 2011 IAAF World Championships in August and the All Africa Games which will run from September 3 to 18 in Mozambique.
“It is going to be tough,” Tšoaeli said.
“So far I have realised that the other athletes have already started training for the events and some of them started last year.”