Meet our world sprint champions
The recent exploits of Tshenolo Lemao and Retshidisitswe Mlenga – both 17 – at the just-concluded IAAF World U18 Championships was proof that the future of SA sprinting is about more than Wayde van Niekerk. Daniel Mothowagae profiles the teenage sprinters
A rivalry that started at a national schools event in Bloemfontein three years ago laid the foundation for Tshenolo Lemao and Retshidisitswe Mlenga to lead a new tier of talented sprinters.
Their emergence on the grand stage unfolded when the country was still marvelling at the rise of Clarence Munyai and Gift Leotlela, both 19.
Lemao and Mlenga are from Bloemfontein, home to Olympic and world champion Wayde van Niekerk and 200m world junior silver medallist Leotlela. While Van Niekerk remains a resident of the “City of Roses”, the talents of Lemao and Mlenga took the pair to “Jacaranda City”, Pretoria, where they are at different schools on sports bursaries.
Just who are these teenagers who got the athletics world talking in the past week?
“I am originally from Bloem and I attended St Andrew’s School from Grade 1 to 9. I received a scholarship to study at TuksSports High School after my coach Thabo Matebedi spotted me during the SA Junior Championships in Bloem in 2015,” said Lemao, the 100m world champion and 200m silver medallist.
He convinced his parents to travel to the IAAF U18 World Champs that ended in Nairobi last Sunday.
“We spoke at the beginning of the year [and I told them] that they must save up some money to come and watch me and I’ll make them proud. I did just that,” chuckled the Grade 11 pupil.
Lemao, whose favourite subjects are maths and history, has been granted an extended school holiday before he trek back to Pretoria next week.
Newly crowned 200m world champ Mlenga, who also clinched silver in the 100m, is preparing to go back to school on Sunday. He has been with Prestige College, a private school in Hammanskraal, outside Pretoria, for three years.
“My family welcomed me with a braai in Centurion [on Monday],” beamed the lad who is originally from Rammulotsi township, Free State.
The London world championships next month will come too soon for the Nairobi champions but their eyes are already fixed firmly on the world junior champs in Finland next year. They are hoping to attract sponsors to help them build on their dream to become the next big success story of SA athletics at senior level, after Van Niekerk.