Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 114, January 2019 | Page 13

ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
There can really only be one winner in this category, because in 2018 the accolades just kept piling up for our double Olympic, triple World Champion and 2017 Diamond
League Series winner
1 CASTER SEMENYA
This past year was in many ways a repeat of the previous years: Undefeated
in the 800m, a new national record (and World Leader for the year) of 1:54.25
in the 800m, plus SA records in the 400m (49.62), 1000m (2:30.70) and
1500m (3:59.92). Add to that the Commonwealth Games titles in both
the 800m and 1500m, Africa Champs titles in the 400m and 800m, and
Continental Cup gold (800m), and there really is no athlete who can touch
her. No wonder she has not lost an 800m race since September 2015,
taking her tally to 38 consecutive wins – and that’s not even counting heats
at major meets – and she is now arguably the greatest 800m runner of all
time... all that is missing is the World Record.
AND THE
WINNER IS...
Off the track, however, Caster has faced a battle that would have made many athletes quit the sport, having to deal with the
IAAF’s proposal to introduce a ruling that would force her to take medication to lower her naturally high testosterone levels
in order to “even the playing fields.” Yet in spite of the ongoing saga, she has continued to run with freedom, and is a major
inspiration to women in South Africa. Caster says she feels she has a calling that transcends her ability on the track. “Fighting
the IAAF isn’t about me. I’m a World Champ‚ Commonwealth Games champ‚ Africa champ… the fight is about the upcoming
young girls who would have the same problem as me. If you want to achieve anything in life‚ you have to fight for it.”
1 OTHER NOMINEES
Caster may have been in a league of her own this year, but to discount the performances of some of the other South
African women on the circuit would be doing them a huge injustice.
Sunette Viljoen won the bronze medal in the javelin at the Commonwealth Games, her fourth medal at these Games
•
in her glittering career, before taking gold at the World Cup of Athletics.
Carina Horn broke the long-standing SA 100m record when she clocked 11:03 at the SA National Championships,
•
then went on to become the first South African woman to go sub-11 when she clocked 10.98 in Doha in May.
Dominique Scott-Efurd continues to break records, and in 2018 she set new South African indoor records in the
•
1500m and 3000m, before running the third-fastest time ever by a South African for the outdoor 5000m.
Take a bow, Caster
Semenya. It remains
to be seen how the
IAAF’s tinkering with
the rules will affect
her career going
forward, but nothing
can take away from
the stupendous
2018 that she
enjoyed!
L
ooking at the South African Road Running scene, one cannot help but feel a massive breakthrough
is on the cards. On the face of it there seems to be more depth in the sport again – a glance at
the SA Half Marathon Championships results seems to confirm this on the men’s front, and the
incredible race for overall honours in the Spar Women’s 10km Series Grand Prix as well as solid marathon
performances appear to bear this out on the women’s front as well. Whether we are indeed experiencing
a resurgence in South African road running remains to be seen, but you cannot deny that there were some
pretty incredible results in 2018, thus picking either a men’s or women’s winner is a pretty daunting task, especially given the range of distances raced, from the short 10km
all the way up to ultra-marathons.
ROAD RUNNING
ROAD RUNNING NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR
The men’s award goes to young Ryan Mphahlele after his
destructive front-running on both the track and roads, albeit over
the shorter non-traditional distances of the mile on the road. He
raced to a massive PB over 10km, clocking 28:46 in Durban,
before going on to win the Tembisa Street Mile in October. Ryan
then competed in the Bestmed Mile Series at the end of the
year, winning all three races and breaking four minutes on two
occasions. At the age of just 20, this aggressive youngster is a
massive talent for the future, and we hope he will stay on the track
for a few more years before switching to the roads, because then
we think he could do some serious damage!
In the women’s category the title of Newcomer of the Year goes
to Glenrose Xaba after her incredible 2018, notably for her first
overall win in the Spar Grand Prix – see next page for more details.
13