Country’s athletics future looks in good hands
With South African athletics taking huge strides in recent years, the next generation of track and field prospects are promising to take the sport to a whole new level.
The 2018 international calendar includes the IAAF World Junior Championships and the Youth Olympic Games, giving some of them a chance to make a real impact for the first time.
You may not have heard their names before, but if they can stay hungry and healthy, here are five teenage athletes who could set the world alight. Zeney van der Walt (400m hurdles)
At last year’s World Under-18 Championships in Nairobi, Van der Walt gritted her teeth in a gutsy display as she chased down Jamaican Sanique Walker to snatch gold by four hundredths of a second (0.04), and earlier this year she showed the same tenacity when she was edged out by 0.04 in a tight battle against former World Championships finalist Wenda Nel at the national senior championships. Having already clocked 55.05 seconds at the age of 18, shattering the 35-year-old SA junior record held by hurdles legend Myrtle Bothma, Van der Walt possesses immense talent. Her bouncy hair, bubbly smile and elegant style over the barriers may give her opponents the perception she is not geared up for a fight, but a warrior lies beneath that deceptive image. The sort of athlete who never settles for a mere battle, when she hits the track, she is ready for war. Soks Zazini (400m hurdles)
Even when he is streets ahead of his opposition, Zazini always gives it everything he’s got, and much like Van der Walt, he carries a sense of determination which makes him dangerous in any race. After setting a world youth best of 48.84 last season, he went on to leave his opponents stranded at the World Under-18 Championships, finishing nearly three seconds clear of the rest of the field in the final. At the age of 18, he has already clocked 49.32 over the senior barriers, and boasting an impressive personal best of 45.86 in the flat 400m sprint, his u ndeniable talent seems boundless. Kayle Blignaut (shot put)
A giant in terms of both size and potential, Blignaut’s soft-spoken demeanour belies his aggression in the circle, and an explosive rocket rests in his arm. He’s not short of confidence, and Blignaut knows he can go much bigger than he already has, but he exudes more an aura of self-belief than a show of arrogance. He launched the shot to 21.65m with a monstrous heave at the Southern Region Junior Championships in Boksburg this season, more than a metre further than the previous SA Under-20 record held by Janus Robberts. Considering he hasn’t even stepped into a gym, when he does, he could shatter global barriers. Gontse Morake (400m hurdles)
A uniquely gifted athlete, Morake is breaking boundaries in two very different disciplines. Her abilities are perhaps better suited to the 400m hurdles, after she took 0.10 off the SA Under-18 record held by Youth Olympic champion Gezelle Magerman when she clocked 57.81 to win the national age group title in Paarl in April. She has also shown tremendous potential in the triple jump, however, showcasing her versatility when she obliterated the SA record by winning the Southern Region youth title in Boksburg with a 13.10m leap. Though she will need to pick a discipline at some point, she’s doing remarkably well juggling both at this early stage of her career. Thando Dlodlo (sprinter)
The latest athlete to be churned out of the South African sprinting factory, Dlodlo is lightning fast, as he showed when he set a national junior 100m record of 10.11 at the SA Senior Championships in Pretoria in March. The 19-year-old speedster has also clocked personal bests of 20.41 over the 200m distance and 48.82 in the 400m event, and with multiple athletes raising the bar at domestic level, Dlodlo looks set to lift it even higher over the next few years.