Isaacson It’s time to batten down the hatches
Athletics SA hosted its first-ever relay training camp — and forgot to bring batons. attended and found hungry athletes fine-tuning themselves ahead of the season
WHEN two gunslingers strut into town, shots will be fired.
And so it was when Olympic longjump silver medallist Luvo Manyonga and Akani Simbine, holder of the 9.89sec South African 100m record and the world’s fifth-quickest man last year, crossed paths during the national relay training camp in Pretoria on Friday. At least theirs was friendly fire. Manyonga, walking past Simbine for his own session at the sand pit, offered to run the back straight in the relay team — long-jumpers like to think they’re quick. Simbine: “You’re too slow.” Manyonga: “Who’s speaking?” Simbine: “The fastest guy in this place!”
Manyonga’s parting shot: “I’ve got a silver medal.”
Simbine, who missed the 100m podium in Brazil by three-hundredths of a second, laughed that off. For him, this training camp is the start of the long trek to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
“The basic idea is to get the guys working together,” said coach Werner Prinsloo, in charge of the men’s 4x100m team.
Athletics SA (ASA) asked him and fellow sprint coaches — Hennie Kriel, Morne Nagel, Paul Gorries and Hendrick Mokganyetsi — to decide their tasks around the 4x100m and 4x400m teams, men’s and women’s.
The federation, which failed to coordinate the relay properly last year ahead of the Rio Games, forgot to organise batons for this camp.
For the first hour or so, two teams trained with borrowed batons from the Tuks club until more were delivered. At one stage one team used an empty water bottle.
But to ASA’s credit, this was the first relay camp in living memory.
“It [the relay] was previously an afterthought,” said Prinsloo. “They would get to a championship and only then the guys would get together.”
Veteran LJ van Zyl trained with the men and offered his 4x400m female counterparts advice after spotting tactical and technical errors.
Van Zyl, Nagel and Mokganyetsi have three world championship relay medals, and they know that getting the changeover right is an art.
Zoe Engler, one of the women’s 4x400m contenders, hurt her shoulder on Friday, falling after being RUN THAT WAY: Veteran sprinter LJ van Zyl gives tips to the 4x400m women’s squad at a training camp in Pretoria on Friday ankle tapped as she received the baton. It was suspected she had broken her collarbone.
The South African men’s 4x100m team, with two sub-10 runners, failed to get past the first handover at the 2015 world championships; the Japanese team that won Olympic silver last year had no sub-tenners.
Imagine what a well-oiled team of Simbine, Henricho Bruintjies, Olympic and world 400m champion Wayde van Niekerk and 200m world championship bronze medallist Anaso Jobodwana could do.
Neither Van Niekerk nor Jobodwana attended Friday’s camp.
ASA wants to enter four teams at the World Relays in the Bahamas on April 22 and 23 — the same weekend as the SA championships.
Simbine wants to focus on the national meet. Alyssa Conley, on the other hand, will miss the South African showpiece if she is selected for the island meet.
Nagel said the women’s 4x100m team focused mostly on the changeover. “The receiver must keep their hand still, don’t search for the baton. And they must start moving when the [approaching] runner hits the marker. Not before, not after.” The men had similar challenges. Thando Roto, after failing to hand over to Emile Erasmus, shouted: “Too early, bra!”
When it comes to training relays, you can’t start too early.
Imagine a welloiled team of Akani Simbine, Bruintjies, Anaso Jobodwana, Wayde van Niekerk