Forgotten son of sprinting back with a bang

Five years ago, before Simon Magakwe broke the sub10 barrier, before Wayde van Niekerk shattered the world record, before Akani Simbine snatched the baton as the country’s fastest man, the future of South African sprinting rested on the shoulders of a lone, lanky prodigy from the Eastern Cape.

When Anaso Jobodwana lined up alongside Usain Bolt as a teenager at the 2012 London Olympics, few people in the South African athletics community had even heard his name.

Having moved to the United States, it was largely a case of “out of sight, out of mind” until Jobodwana forced local officials to give him some attention by snatching a place on the biggest stage of all.

Following his Olympic debut, his early progress was promising, and he won the 100m and 200m double at the World Student Games before grabbing 200m bronze at the 2015 World Championships.

After playing a key role in launching a new era from across the Atlantic, however, while the likes of Van Niekerk and Simbine were starting to make waves as part of an explosive sprint revolution back home, Jobodwana’s career was hitting a wall.

He needed surgery on a sports hernia, and a subsequent battle with injuries saw him come home for medical treatment.

Making an attempted comeback last year, Jobodwana was inconsistent and sloppy, and even

Wesley Bo on

more worrying was his demeanour off the track.

With Van Niekerk and Simbine flaunting their impressive form at the SA Championships last season, grabbing all the headlines, a forlorn Jobodwana was left to contemplate his future and consider whether he had anything more to give on the track.

It seemed, for at least a moment, that he might call it quits, slip into the shadows of his es- teemed compatriots and vanish into obscurity.

All those concerns faded last week, however, when Jobodwana clocked 10.07 with the benefit of a tailwind to win the Gauteng North title.

Even more promising, after that performance, was his attitude off the track.

Seemingly buoyed by his new training partners in Pretoria, following a move from his base in Durban, Jobodwana seems both content and motivated. More importantly, the bravado which is necessary in the approach of a world-class sprinter has returned, and he has a confident swagger again in his stride.

In his absence from the domestic and international circuits, Jobodwana has lost his place on the throne as the country’s best sprinter, and he has a lot of work to do to close the gap on some of his runaway compatriots.

But he is already adding firepower to the national relay team in the absence of injured athletes Van Niekerk and Thando Roto, and the former SA 200m record holder has displayed real signs that he has the ability to climb back to the top.

For now, it’s good to see him embracing his talent and regaining the passion he previously held for his chosen profession.

The forgotten son of South African sprinting has returned, and if he ultimately reaches his potential, he won’t let us forget him again.