Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 122, September 2019 | Page 54

TRACK & FIELD
Having overcome a niggling injury and
changed coach, two-time age category
World Champion in the 400-metre
hurdles, Sokwakhana Zazini, is
raring to take on the best in the world
as he transitions into the senior ranks.
– BY MANFRED SEIDLER
W
hen first meeting Sokwakhana ‘Soks’ Zazini,
you find a quiet, unassuming and reserved
young man, but he has a firm handshake
and a quiet confidence about him that one immediately
notices. This is the young man who announced
himself to the world in 2017 when he set a new World
Youth Record of 48.84 seconds in the 400-metre
hurdles, then went on to win the World Under-18 title
in Nairobi, Kenya. The record had generated a lot of
excitement and expectation ahead of the global youth
championship meet, but it was his World Champs win
that showed Soks’ true star potential and ability to
perform under pressure.
The following year, Soks capped another successful
season with a second world title, this time claiming the
World Under-20 400m hurdles gold medal in Tampere,
Finland. Since then, Soks has continued to rake in the
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ISSUE 122 SEPTEMBER 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
Period of Change
Soks hails from Burgersdorp in the Eastern Cape and
moved to Pretoria in 2018 to attend the Tuks Sport
School. He ran his 400m personal best of 45.86 in
April of 2018 to win the SA Junior 400m title to go
with his 400m hurdles title at the same SA Under-20
Championships. He would go on to finish second
at the 2018 SA Senior Championships in the 400m
hurdles, then claimed the World Under-20 title in July.
There was some concern about Zazini’s form earlier
this year, even though he comfortably won the SA
Junior 400m hurdles title in March, but he seemed
to have no fuel in the tank in the flat 400m sprint. He
went into that final the odds-on favourite to win that
title as well, but had to settle for fourth place in what
was for him a pedestrian time of 47.40. However,
this could be put down to the fact that he had had
a tough four months leading up to the SA Junior
Championships.
In December he took time off from the track to
undergo the rite of passage, as part of his isiXhosa
culture. Then he had to deal with recurring injuries
at the same time as changing coach, moving from
Hennie Kriel to Lucinda Pienaar in January this
year. Better known to South Africans as Lucinda
Liebenberg, a multiple medallist in the 400m hurdles
at the South African Championships, she says she is
very impressed with her new young charge. “His flat
speed between the hurdles is frightening, but it’s his
attitude that is such a strength. When he goes into
the blocks, he wants nothing more than to win, never
mind who his opponents are.”
She goes on to say that his silver medal performance
at the recent Universiade should actually have earned
him another gold and world title. “He wasn’t actually
beaten at the World Students, he lost that race when
he hit the last hurdle and stumbled, and that was it.
He was leading going into that final hurdle, and you
do not recover from that.” In spite of this, Soks still
clocked 48.73 to claim the silver medal and set a
new African Junior Record, taking just under half a
Big Breakthrough
on the Cards
medals on the global stage – in 2019, he has won the
African Under-20 title in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, as well
as two silver medals at the World University Games
(Universiade) in Naples, Italy, in his main 400m hurdles
event as well as in the 4x400m relay.