Teen sprint prospects shift mission to Rio
SOUTH Africa’s Olympic-bound teenager Clarence Munyai now looks to Rio following his disappointment at the IAAF World U20 Championships that ended in Poland yesterday.
Munyai finished outside the medals on Friday in the 200m final of the global junior championships, the same event his schoolmate Gift Leotlela bagged a silver medal for after he too ended empty-handed in the 100m final a few days earlier.
The pair, both 18, have been entered in the 200m sprint at the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Speaking to Sowetan from Bydgoszcz, which hosted the five-day event, Munyai said the junior championships had prepared him for the biggest stage next month.
“It’s a minor setback and, hopefully, I can prove myself in Rio,” said the TuksSport High School Grade 11 pupil.
“It did boost Gift’s confidence going to Rio.
“I was under pressure because it was the first time I was running in a major competition. I ran fastest times but it was tough in the final, the pressure was just too much for me to deliver.”
With Poland done and dusted, Munyai said he was looking forward to mixing with Team SA’s sprinting stars such as Akani Simbine, Anaso Jobodwana and Wayde van Niekerk in Rio.
“It will be nice to mix with them, they’re very cool guys and they’ll be there to keep us calm.”
Munyai conceded he would be star-struck if he mingled with Jamaican legend Usain Bolt at the Olympic village.
“It will be the first time I see him in person, but we have to go there on one mission – not to see Bolt but to run. That’s what we’ll be there for at the end of the day.”
Meanwhile, Leotlela’s gong was one of the country’s three medals – all silver – in Poland, after javelin throwers Jo-Ane van Dyk and Johan Grobler also ascended the podium during the week.