Wishing our world-beaters well
BASKING in the immediate afterglow of Chad le Clos regaining of his signature 200m butterfly event at the swimming world championships in Budapest this week, South Africans are keenly awaiting the start of the athletics version of the gathering of the best on the planet.
In London from next Friday, track and field’s finest will be pulling out all the stops to win gold.
Among them will be three South Africans who can be regarded as virtual certainties to win their main events.
Who can forget how Wayde van Niekerk, the 400m world champion and record holder, stunned watchers when at the Rio Olympic Games last year he shattered the one-lap best, long held by an American Michael Johnson.
Van Niekerk appeared a little surprised by how much he had chopped off the record – a whopping 0.15 seconds.
His feats and those of 800m specialist Caster Semenya – our other athletics gold medallist from Rio – have contributed greatly to the upsurge in the popularity of athletics in the country.
And extrovert long-jumper Luvo Manyonga, who has had to overcome significant problems in his personal life, has leapt into the public imagination with a vengeance. Manyonga was in the gold medal position in Rio at one point, but had to be satisfied with silver. He is definitely in gold-medal territory for London, too.
Next week’s world championships have an interesting extra dimension to them in the case of Van Niekerk and Semenya.
They have taken on the onerous task of going for double gold in London. Van Niekerk will tackle the 200m in addition to the 400m, while Semenya is shooting for a double triumph by entering the 1 500m as well.
The duo undoubtedly have the ability to succeed in multiple events – indeed Van Niekerk has shown world-class ability in the 100m as well – but the key will be how they handle the additional workload of progressing through the preliminary rounds.
In this golden era of athletics, our world-beating athletes have provided a lift to the nation and we in turn wish them multiple successes.