Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 110, September 2018 | Page 29

TRACK & FIELD
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With two age group World Championship titles to her name, young hurdler Zeney
van der Walt has already started making her presence felt in the senior ranks.
– BY SEAN FALCONER
I
n any hurdles event, it pays to have a never-
say-die attitude, because the technical nature of
hurdling can throw up some unexpected results.
For example, last July at the 2017 World Under-18
Champs in Nairobi, Kenya, Jamaica’s Sanique Walker
entered the home straight with a massive lead in the
final of the Girls 400m hurdles and looked to have the
World Title sown up… until she hit the last hurdle and
stumbled. That allowed second-placed Zeney van der
Walt of South Africa to close the gap and sneak the
win by just 0.04 seconds in 58.23. “I didn’t expect to
win, I just kept on pushing till the end because I still
had the energy,” she says.
Almost exactly a year later, having recently turned 18
in May, Zeney lined up at the World Under-20 Champs
in Tampere, Finland, winning her qualifying heat
comfortably in 57.78, the only athlete to dip under 58
seconds in the heats as she held back and just made
sure of automatic qualification for the final. Two days
later in the final, in spite of wet conditions and even
though she was the youngest in the race, she showed
her true speed as she came home in 55.34, finishing
well clear of another Jamaican, Shiann Salmon, who
clocked 56.11.
That made Zeney a double World Champion,
something she still finds hard to believe. “It was
incredible to win in Finland, but I think it still has not
really sunk in that I won two World Champs. Last
year’s win was a bit of surprise, but this year it
was a totally different race. I had the fastest
time in the field this year, so I knew I had a
chance to win. Due to being Under-18 World
Champ, I did feel a bit of pressure, but I didn’t
let it get to me. When I went down in my
blocks, I wanted to go for the win!”
STEADY RISE
Zeney says she fell in love with the sport in
primary school, where she ran the hurdles for
the first time in grade four, while also competing
in the short hurdles and the 400m straight, but the
single-lap hurdles became her focus – and success
has followed. In Grade 9 she won the SA Sub-youth
Title for the 300m hurdles, followed a year later by
the SA Youth Title for 400m hurdles. In Grade 11 she
‘doubled’ by winning the SA Youth Titles for both the
400m hurdles and 400m straight, clocking 57.94 in
the hurdles final to narrowly miss 2014 Olympic Youth
Games Champion Gezelle Magerman’s SA Youth
Record by just 0.03 seconds, and then she followed
that up with the Under-18 World Title.
This year has been even better! She won the SA
Under-20 title and then followed that up with a second
place at the SA Senior Champs, only just losing out
to Olympian Wenda Nel in the final. Wenda clocked
55:01 to Zeney’s 55:05, with the youngster only losing
out after a slight stumble at the final hurdle, but her
time was good enough to move her up to fourth place
on the South African senior all-time list, and to finally
beat Myrtle Bothma’s 35-year-old SA Junior Record
(55.74). Afterwards, Wenda admitted that Zeney had
really pushed her to the limit: “This was one of my
toughest races, but also one of the most exciting. To
be challenged the way Zeney did forced me out of my
comfort zone.”
In turn, Zeney gave credit to Wenda for helping her
to run so well. “Last year I took on the seniors at SA
Champs for the first time and finished third, so second
this year was still better, and to hear Wenda say it
was one of her hardest SA Champs wins was a real
compliment. Wenda helped me run that time, and
then after the race, when she was supposed to get
the attention of the crowd, she asked them to give me
round of applause instead. That was an unbelievable
privilege.”
TAKING ON THE
WORLD
That performance set the scene for Zeney’s dominant
World Champs run in Finland, and now the youngster
is looking forward to representing her country again in
the future. Currently in her Matric year at Afrikaanse
Hoër Meisieskool in Pretoria, she is planning to study
at the University of Pretoria next year, while focusing
on qualifying for the 2019 World Champs in Doha,
followed by the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. “I don’t
focus that much on the times I run, and while I have a
specific target time in the back of my head, I just try to
do my best at the moment.”
Fortunately, her high school coach, Maritza Coetzee,
will also be moving to Tuks next year, so their
successful relationship is set to continue, and overall,
Zeney says she is just enjoying her athletics. “We
have a great SA team at the moment, all supporting
each other, and it’s wonderful to have the country
behind us as well. It’s also great to see our juniors
achieving as much as the seniors, and it’s just a great
time for South African athletics.”
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