Soks to look at bigger picture

After joining a handful of the country’s elite stars on the sidelines ahead of the IAAF World Championships starting on September 27, Soks Zazini’s coach hopes the world junior champion can capitalise on his time off the track as he sets his sights on next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

Zazini (above) was ruled out this week with a foot injury, and though his season has come to a premature close, his management team believed the in-form 400m hurdles specialist could return stronger next season.

“Soks needs to get physically stronger as he is quite skinny, but there has never been time for him to do quality sessions in the gym as he was continually racing, but now we have got time to work on it,” said coach Lucinda Pienaar.

Having earned the silver medal at the World Student Games in Napoli in July, setting a personal best of 48.73 seconds, Pienaar believed the Tuks athlete could make further strides over the next few years.

“There are a few other aspects of his training that have been neglected,” she said.

Aside from Zazini, the 31-member SA team announced this week is also without injured 400m title holder Wayde van Niekerk, 800m world champion Caster Semenya, who was provisionally suspended pending the outcome of a court appeal, and 100m sprinter Carina Horn, who was banned on doping charges.

In their absence, the squad featured a small group of medal contenders including long jumpers Luvo Manyonga and Ruswahl Samaai, who finished first and third respectively at the 2017 World Championships in London, and local sprint king Akani Simbine, who will anchor a powerful 4x100m relay team.