Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 102, January 2018 | Page 25

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TRACK & FIELD
Long-jumper Ruswahl Samaai first made a name for himself at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, winning the bronze
medal in Glasgow, but in 2017 thing really came together for him as he brought home a World Champs bronze, in spite of a
number of injuries along the way. – BY REGGIE HUFKIE
W
hile Luvo Manyonga’s Olympic long jump silver medal in Rio in 2016,
followed by a gold at the London World Champs in 2017, has rightfully
received much publicity in South Africa, especially given Luvo’s return
to grace after being banned from competition for the use of recreational drugs, it
is perhaps fair to say that 26-year-old Ruswahl Samaai’s bronze medal in London
didn’t get as much recognition as it deserved. That does a disservice to Ruswahl,
who actually had a brilliant 2017 season.
At the 2017 ASA Senior Track and Field Championships in Potchefstroom, he
produced a personal best of 8.49m, climbing to third in the all-time South African
rankings behind Khotso Mokoena and Luvo. That was followed by the bronze
medal in London, creating a historic moment as the South African duo became the
first to win medals in the same event at a major athletic championship.
“This was a successful season, it’s been a roller-coaster ride for me, but I knew I
was going to have a good season,” says Ruswahl, who works under the tutelage
of Jenny Kingwill. “It started off slow and a lot of people thought I was not going to
make it, until I produced that 8.49m at National Champs. We had a rocky start, but
we had a plan. Our main goal was World Champs, and we knew we were going to
get a medal. The only thing that was going to keep us away from getting a medal
was an injury. We wanted to execute at the right time and we did. This medal
represents all the struggle, pain and suffering that I had to go through to get to
where I am today. It means so much to me.”
Injury Problems
Unfortunately, injuries have featured prominently in Ruswahl’s career since his
junior sporting days. Born and raised in Paarl, he started out as a triple jumper,
but a knee operation in 2010 forced a change to the conventional long jump.
He later moved to Gauteng to study transport management at the University
of Johannesburg, but injuries
continued to hamper his athletics
progress. Things came right in
2014 as he claimed the bronze
medal at both the Commonwealth
Games and the African Champs,
but in 2015, having jumped a
world-leading personal best of
8.38m and winning the SA title,
his World Champs campaign was
derailed by another hamstring
injury, and he could only finish
20th in Beijing.
The 2016 season promised much, with a fifth place at the World Indoor Champs
in Portland, then a first place with an 8.40m jump in the African Champs in
Durban, making Ruswahl one of the favourites for the Rio Olympic title, but he
had to settle for a disappointing ninth place, and more niggly injuries. “It took me
two to three months to get over the Olympic Games. I couldn’t sleep. I was the
favourite and everything just fell to pieces. I guess God knew that I wasn’t ready
for it, but I made peace with 2016 and focused on 2017. You have to forget about
it and move on, look at the brighter things ahead that God has in store for you,
and for me it was health and a bronze medal at World Champs. I couldn’t have
asked for more.”
Sharing the Limelight
It is sad to see an athlete of Ruswahl’s calibre not getting the recognition he
deserves, because his brilliant London performance was somewhat overshadowed
by Luvo’s gold medal, but he says he isn’t at all fazed. “2017 was the best year in
my athletics career, but I feel like this is only the beginning. I have so much more
to offer and I doubt a lot of people realise that. I don’t feel like my performance
has been overshadowed by Luvo, though. We are on different journeys, heading
in different directions, but we want the same thing, and that’s being the best long
jumper in the world.”
Some people talk of Ruswahl being able to someday break Mike Powell’s
26-year-old World Record of 8.95m, but he quickly changes the focus of the
conversation. “To be honest, I don’t care about the World Record. It would be an
amazing achievement, no doubt, but I care more about consistency, hard work
and ambition. We still have a lot of things to work on, and if I get that right, then
everything else will fall into place. I will get the distance if I always find ways to
improve. The key for me is improvement and being consistent, and I will let my
performance speak for itself.”
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