The Road to Rio ‘WAYDE FOR ONE’
| Debate over sprint star’s participation in the relay hots up
REIGNING world champions Wayde van Niekerk and Chad Le Clos have yet to decide how many medals to target at the Rio Olympics.
Le Clos, the 100m butterfly king, is eyeing three or four.
But the veteran coach of Van Niekerk says the 400m titleholder should aim for only one.
Ans Botha warned this week that putting Van Niekerk into the men’s 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams could risk injury.
If all the country’s stars are fit and in top form by the time the Games kick off on August 6, Team South Africa has a shot at a record medal haul.
Rio 2016 could be SA’s best Games since readmission in 1992, with the team likely to surpass the six medals of London 2012, and maybe challenge the 10 gongs achieved by the allwhite teams of 1920 and 1952.
The 4x100m relay is a medal hope. “I believe there is a team configuration for the 4x100m that will challenge for a medal,” said Frank Dick, the consultant coach hired by the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc).
Van Niekerk last week clocked 9.98sec over 100m to become the third active SA sprinter to go sub-10, after Akani Simbine, who lowered the national mark to 9.96 earlier this month, and Henricho Bruintjies (9.97).
Add Anaso Jobodwana, the 200m world championship bronze medallist, and you can almost smell the podium.
But the idea of Van Niekerk chasing a relay medal doesn’t sit well with Botha.
“This weekend I want to take it up with Sascoc,” she said on her arrival at an Olympic camp, organised by Sascoc, at the University of Pretoria’s High Per- formance Centre. Among those there were Olympic champion swimmers Le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh as well as the rugby sevens and women’s football teams.
“We want to concentrate on what we have to do [the 400m],” said Botha. “I really don’t want him to be sidetracked.”
When Van Niekerk joined Botha in late 2012 he was injury prone, and she moved him to the 400m because she believed that the speed and explosiveness required by the shorter sprints CHAD LE CLOS: Is looking for at least three medals at the Rio Olympics were problematic. “We worked hard in 2015 to keep him injury free.”
His huge performances last year exceeded even her own expectations, she admitted. “I know after races we have to plan so he has a certain number of days’ rest. The body is tired and sore,” she said, adding his rivals would target him at the Games.
“You can’t do three races [the 400m heats, semifinals and final] at the Olympics and then WAYDE VAN NIEKERK: Coach Ans Botha says his focus is the 400m run your best [in a relay] with a sore and tired body. Then you’re asking for trouble.”
Botha also doesn’t want him in a 4x400m relay.
Sascoc has yet to pronounce on it. “I’d like to discuss that with Ans,” said Dick, whose job is to maximise SA’s medal chances.
Van Niekerk said his focus was winning 400m gold, but added: “I’ll definitely try to be available for [the relays]. I’m CAMERON VAN DER BURGH: Was at the Olympic camp going to have to listen to my body first.”
Meanwhile, Le Clos says he will do the 100m and 200m butterfly races in which he made the podium four years ago, as well as the 200m freestyle.
He was sixth in the freestyle race at last year’s world championships. “Since [then] I’m a much better 200m freestyle swimmer. I’ve been practising how to swim the race.”
But Le Clos is agonising over the 100m freestyle, swimming’s showcase event.
His problem is that the 100m semifinals are shortly before the 200m fly final, where he wants to defend his crown against Michael Phelps.
“If the 100m semifinals were after the fly that evening, there wouldn’t be a question,” he said. “I would love to swim the 100m freestyle.
“Next year, they’ve got problems.”
We want to concentrate on what we have to do. I don’t want him to be sidetracked