Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 122, September 2019 | Page 55

TRACK & FIELD
second off his personal best and running a
time that puts him 14 th on the 2019 World
Ranking lists. “It is incredible how well
he is running,” says Lucinda. “He really
did not have much of a winter and some
major issues with a recurring back injury,
and yet here he is improving with virtually
every race.”
Sokwakhana Zazini
Born: 23 January 2000
Age: 19
Personal Bests
400mh: 48.73
400m: 45.86
Road to Recovery
When Soks joined Lucinda in early
January, he was complaining of back
pain as well as a groin problem. She
sent him for an MRI scan and they
discovered he had a Pubic Symphysis
injury, which is often treated as a lower
back injury, meaning the actual injury
is not treated and thus will likely keep
recurring. This saw Soks sidelined
for six weeks of rehabilitation. “There
was no work on the track, we could not take any
chances. We spent a lot of time on the watt bike and a
substantial amount of time strengthening his core and
glutes,” says Lucinda.
International Honours
World U17 Champion 400m hurdles, 2017
World U20 Champion 400m hurdles, 2018
African U20 Champion 400m hurdles, 2019
World University Games Silver Medallist, 400m hurdles, 2019
World University Games Silver Medallist, 4x400m, 2019
athlete, and he was able to come through the two-
month period of racing with no problems. That was a
big concern for us,” admits Lucinda.
European Success
When he did make a comeback, it came as a big
surprise that in his first race on the track, Soks flew
to a 51.51 at the first Varsity Athletics Meeting in
Stellenbosch in early March. Due to issues with the
timing equipment, that time could not be ratified and
is listed in the statistics as an ‘Irregular Mark,’ but
there was no doubting Soks’ second race, also at a
Varsity Athletics Meeting, when he crossed the line in
51.03 for leading World Junior time for the year. By the time the South African season wrapped up,
Soks had received invitations to various meetings in
Europe. As these only started in the middle of June,
Lucinda immediately put him onto a short winter
programme. “Soks doesn’t like over-distance work,
which we need to do. He prefers the 150m to 250m
speed stuff, but we do need to do the over-distance
work for that second half of the race. He is very
young right now, so can get away with a few things,
but we do need to build his strength and endurance,
especially as he is racing more and more against
senior athletes, even though he is still a junior athlete.”
The real surprise this year has been how well Zazini
has maintained his form this season after missing out
on much of the crucial base training in the build-up
to the season. He won the SA Junior title at the end
of March, followed that up with the Africa Junior title
in early April, before having to settle for the silver
medal at the SA Senior Championships in late April. It
was remarkable that his body was able to handle the
stress of so many races, given his shortened period of
build-up training. “We were worried, but he is a class Clearly the short stint of ‘winter work’ paid dividends,
because Soks opened his international campaign
with a personal best of 49.29. What followed were
two more wins in the lower to mid 49-second region
(49.33 and 49.67), before moving on to the World
University Championships in Italy, where he won the
silver medal with his new PB 48.73 and Africa Junior
Record. “I’ll say it again, had he not stumbled at the
final hurdle, there is no doubt that Soks would have
gone substantially faster,” says Lucinda, “but we will
never know what he could have run, so we need to
work off the 48.73.”
Bright Future
Soks is what people in the industry like to call a
thoroughbred... because he loves to race. “He has this
confidence and hunger to race. He is not intimidated
by anyone,” says Lucinda. “Next up for him will be
the World Championships, where a semi-final is a
realistic target for Soks. Getting into the final will be a
bonus for Soks, because it he still only 19, but it is not
impossible – if you look at those outside the world’s
top three, who are running 47’s, the rest are all around
mid-48’s. That is within Soks’ reach, but he will need
to improve his PB quite dramatically, so we are not
worrying about anything but the semi-final for now.”
In fact, she says they do not even hold high
expectations for the 2020 Olympic Games as yet,
given his young age, unless of course Soks has a
stupendous year in 2020. If he continues to progress
along the current trajectory a final in the Olympics in
2020 is not beyond his reach. “Soks’ career is only
just starting, and we are just learning to work together,
so the immediate plan will be for him to get onto a
decent winter training plan. This will happen once
Soks has had a bit of rest when he returns from Doha.
Then we can plan for 2020.”
What is not under any doubt is that now that the injury
has been properly identified, Soks can really build for
the future, where his positive attitude towards racing
is sure to stand him in good stead. Chances are good
that in the next two to three years, Sokwakhana Zazini
will become a name to be feared on the global 400m
hurdling circuit.
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