Two SA veterans set for Olympics finales
VETERANS LJ van Zyl and Khotso Mokoena had both considered retirement in the past few years, and today they begin their Olympic swansongs at the Rio Games.
Mokoena is up first in the qualifying round of the triple jump at 2.30pm (SA time), and he at least already has an Olympic medal – the long-jump silver from Beijing 2008.
Van Zyl, in action at 4.35pm, has yet to make the podium at the Olympics.
Van Zyl nearly quit the sport in 2014 after a bleak three seasons in which he had produced nothing resembling his magic of earlier years.
His contracts with two sponsors were scheduled to end and he believed they would not be renewed.
“I thought, what is the use of carrying on if I’ve got no financial backing? It’s too risky just to run for prize money,” Van Zyl said.
“You have to have at least something to pay the bills,” the husband to marathon runner Irvette, who withdrew before yesterday’s race because of a foot injury, said.
Van Zyl visited his parents in the North-Eastern Cape to ask their advice on what to do.
En route he got an e-mail from adidas and Bestmed offering a two-year extension.
After his coach, Hennie Kotze, left for Saudi Arabia, Van Zyl approached Irma Reyneke, whom he describes as a top-notch motivator.
“She’s a flippin’ good motivator,” the 2002 world junior champion, who won the world championship bronze medal in 2011, said.
Van Zyl is quietly confident of doing something special in Rio, having recently achieved a 200m best time of 20.68sec.
His speed has come with improved conditioning.
“I’m 8kg lighter than I was in the off-season, December, January . . . with that speed, somewhere you must adapt your stride pattern.”
Before leaving South Africa, he and Reyneke were working on altering his stride pattern so he would not have to create a time-wasting half-step going over the early hurdles.
If he gets that right in Rio, Van Zyl could look at dipping below 48sec for the first time since 2011.
“I think I can,” he said. “Not for the sake of the Olympics, but for myself. I’ve got to.”
Meanwhile, Stephen Mokoka was pleased after he delivered the best championship time of his career in the 10 000m at the Rio Olympics on Saturday.
The African champion clocked 27min 54.57sec to finish 18th behind defending champion Mo Farah of Britain in 27:05.17.
He was nearly 50 seconds off the pace, but still it was a vast improvement on his world championship efforts where he had even been lapped. “I’m happy about my time. “After four years of championships I managed to break 28 minutes, so I’m very happy with it,” Mokoka, who achieved his 27:40.73 personal best in Port Elizabeth in 2012, said.
“I can say this was the best race of my life . . . this time they were 200m away from me when they finished,” Mokoka, who was more than 90 seconds behind at the 2011 and 2015 world championships, said.
He said he was unable to go when the break came midway through the race.
“After 5km for me that surge was very difficult, I couldn’t go with it,” he said.
Mokoka, who had also qualified in the marathon, was criticised for opting not to do the longer race, where observers believed he would have a better chance of a medal.
He insisted then he had a chance of making the 10 000m podium, but yesterday he sang a different tune.
“I just do them [10 000m] for speed,” he said.