Wayde dreams of leading SA to glory in relays

HE scored 11 tries to win the Player of the Tournament award, but Seabelo Senatla credits his “magical” Blitzbok teammates for much of his success in winning the Dubai Sevens title.

The Springbok Sevens trounced Olympic champions Fiji 26-14 with an intense mix of vigorous defence and deadly attack as they besieged the islanders into mistakes and took their own chances to run in four tries to two.

Senatla, who was picked in the Dubai Dream Team along with Werner Kok, grabbed the final touchdown following a kick ahead by Rosko Specman to finish things off in style, and will look to complete his sevens duties in the same manner at the Cape Town Sevens this weekend before joining the Stormers for Super Rugby.

“It’s quite incredible to play with the guys that I do – they’re quite magical. And as a flyer, that’s all you need … people to put you into space, and we’re playing to a plan. So, hats off to the boys as they are always putting me in space and doing the hard work on my inside to make sure that I have space on the outside,” the World Sevens Player of the Year said.

“It’s always nice to get one over Fiji as we knew we had the potential at the Olympics. Not that we are thinking about the Olympics now, because we crossed over that line a long time ago. We all know that it’s a whole lot of pressure, especially after winning three or four times in a row at your home tournament. But we take it as it comes – we all know that putting on the Springbok jumper is massive pressure, but we try to make everything internal. We know if we can do all the small things well, everything will blossom for us (in Cape Town).”

Perhaps the hurt of ending with a bronze medal instead of gold in Rio inspired the Blitzboks in Dubai, and the 23-yearold speedster is pushing himself further, too. “That was a pretty big honour for me, to be the World Player of the Year. But I knew that coming to the new season, nothing that I did (before) was going to help me,” he said.

“For me, it was all about starting over and building the foundation of doing hard work for the team. We are comfortable with being uncomfortable, and it was all about starting again, and not clinging on to what happened last season.”

The Blitzboks were set to arrive in the Mother City last night, and have been drawn in a tough Pool A with Australia, USA and Russia at the Cape Town Stadium.

Coach Neil Powell says the Dubai triumph over Fiji will help “create the belief that we can beat them on any day”, and added that avoiding injuries will be vital in trying to defend their Cape Town Sevens title.

“Credit to the guys for sticking to the game plan – they implemented exactly what we asked of them – and the result came by itself,” he said.

“They can only really produce offloads and be dangerous if they get momentum. We tried to be in their faces and take their space away, and the guys really did that well and almost kept them playing backwards all the time.

“It’s key for us to keep putting one over Fiji and create the belief that we can beat them on any day and at any time.”

“Nothing that we did in this (Dubai) tournament will help us in Cape Town. We need to put down the foundation again and build the momentum.” World record holder and Olympic champion Wayde van Niekerk is available to race in a relay team provided the athletes are given the right opportunities.

Van Niekerk anchored the South African men’s 4x100m relay team to claim the African Athletics Championship title in Durban in June.

The quartet that also included SA 100m recordholder Akani Simbine, Gift Leotlela and Emile Erasmus posted a time of 38.84s.

It was a rare appearance for Van Niekerk, who has been reluctant to commit in the relays unless they were medal contenders.

“We know how structures in SA go and it is hard for me to say, it all depends on.... if the guys are ready, if the guys are fit and if the guys want to do it and if we actually have the means and opportunities,” Van Niekerk said.

“We know we have quite good quality 4x100m athletes back at home but it all depends on if we have opportunities.

“Let’s hope it happens at the right time and the structures are set up for us to run it.”

Despite the South African’s world record run to claim the Olympic title, Van Niekerk still lost out at the IAAF Athlete of the Year awards to Usain Bolt who completed an unprecedented Olympic ‘triple-triple’.

Bolt won his third Olympic title in each of the 100m, 200m and 4x100m at the Rio showpiece in August.

“It has definitely been a blessed season and an amazing year of growth and a confidence-booster. I feel I’ve been growing year after year,” Van Niekerk said in Monaco.

“At the same time sitting at the awards looking at the meaning of the evening, it is a bit bitter-sweet knowing that a legend like Usain Bolt is on the verge of retiring.”

One cannot but feel Van Niekerk is in the process of taking the baton from Bolt as the foremost sprinter in the world.

Van Niekerk credited Bolt for inspiring generation of aspiring sprinters.

“He is someone we all find so much motivation and inspiration from and he is close to retiring so it is a bit sad,” Van Niekerk said.

“But at the same time it also opens up so many doors for me to believe and go out there and be the best Wayde I can.”

Van Niekerk has already shown he has the ability and potential to be a world beater in the shorter distances when he clocked his first sub-10 second time in the 100m at the Free State Championships in Bloemfontein.

“I’m really looking forward to working on my 100m and 200 metres, I always say that my first love in the sport was the short sprints.

“That’s why I do track and field. The 400 metres has brought me this far, so I don’t see a reason to go out there and neglect it. I feel that I should still put in a lot of effort in the 400 but at the same time I’ve got such a massive hunger inside me to improve my 100 and 200 as well.”

Van Niekerk has already voiced his intentions to etch out a similar career to that of Bolt.

Given the depth of sprinting talent South Africa has at its disposal it would only be natural for Van Niekerk to target relay medals.

Fortunately Athletics SA has committed to investing in the country’s relay project.