Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 124, November 2019 | Page 53

other athletes, and had therefore been leading or
pulling her, which is against the rules. Of course, the
disqualification was a huge disappointment, especially
after finishing on the podium.
“Rio left me devastated, and although I competed
at three World Championships, I never really felt
comfortable or had the self-belief to race more
aggressively.” Her best result was a fourth at the
London World Championships in the 1500m, although
you could have thrown a blanket over the top four in
that race, with only a second separating them.
Unsurprisingly, after her DQ in Rio and recent PB,
Louzanne feels she has unfinished business on the
track. “After Rio I ran to be safe, that is probably the
best way to explain it,” she says, but points out that
she now feels more confident and wants to attack a
bit more in races. “I won’t be leading from the front,
but will also not just be sitting in the middle. My kick
has improved dramatically, but I do not want to leave
it to a kick at the finish.”
Guiding Challenges
Games goal, or shift focus back to the 1500m. “This
is the first time I have held the world number one
ranking, and I am a bit surprised, but very happy,”
she says. “It would be incredibly difficult to do both,
because if I focus on the marathon, I lose my speed,
and if I focus on the 1500m, which, given my world
number one ranking, is something I am seriously
considering, then I lose my endurance.”
Tactically More Astute
So what has brought about this sudden burst on the
track? Well, because the marathon result in London
was a knock to Louzanne’s plans, she decided in
June to change her coach. That saw her begin training
with Girda Siebert, who is based in Craddock in the
Eastern Cape. Therefore, once a month, Louzanne
makes the four-hour trip to Craddock to spend two
days with her new coach. “The rest of the time we
communicate with videos and through WhatsApp.”
It is incredible what a new coach and new outlook can
do for an athlete’s racing mindset. Girda immediately
reduced Louzanne’s mileage and added more speed-
based work, and with the confidence gained from
the additional speed and with a new vision on how to
race, Louzane approached the 1500m in Paris very
differently to how she would usually run. “I thought
it was a really well-judged race. When the gun went
off, there was a lot of argy-bargy pushing and shoving
in the front. I let them get on with that and settled in
around fourth or fifth, and then started to move up.
That is how I will race in the future, close to the front
to be safe, and while I have a stronger finish, I do not
want to leave it to a final kick, so I will wind up the
pace from a bit further out.”
“Girda has definitely reignited a fire in me, and that
took me to a 13-second PB in the 1500m in the space
of just three months. I started to enjoy the track again,
and felt a new confidence, as I could feel myself going
faster, was lighter on my feet, and of course, the
results helped the confidence.”
Confidence Boosted
That last point is very important to this story, because
Louzanne was disqualified after finishing third in the
1500m T11 final at the Rio Olympics in 2016. The
reason given by the officials was that her guide,
Khothatso Mokone, had briefly gone marginally ahead
of her while trying to get through a gap between
While Louzanne is enjoying her renewed impetus on
the track and is relishing the faster racing again, she
is aware that she faces another challenge, over and
above deciding which event she will do in Tokyo. “The
road and the track are really very different, and being
visually impaired means I need to run with a guide,”
she says. In Claus Kempen, she has a guide she has
run with for a number of years, who understands her
running and is able to stay with her gruelling pace –
on the roads. But the track is faster, and you need
to be strategically more astute, and this is where the
challenge comes in. “I need to find someone who can
race a 1500m, who understands the ebb and flow of
how the race unfolds, and who can run the required
pace. That person is a lot more difficult to find.”
Louzanne still has ambitions to take down that
marathon World Record, but says that may have to
wait. “If Dubai goes well, I may very well hit the track
in Tokyo and not the marathon, but that World Record
in the marathon is not going to be left alone. I will give
that a go again at some stage.”
Ironically, Louzanne actually admits that she doesn’t
particularly like the marathon distance, in spite of
her hunger for the World Record, and says part of
the problem is the bad experience in London earlier
this year. “My ITB was really painful and took a long
time to heal, and that has made me a bit more wary
of the distance. I feel it is easier to get injured in the
marathon than in the 1500m. Plus, I am now really,
really comfortable and enjoying the 1500m... but
Dubai will be the decider.”
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