Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 125, December 2019 | Page 56

TRACK & FIELD
O
n 21 October 2000, in the city of Santiago de
Chile, 19-year-old Paul Gorries sank into the
starting blocks for the 200m final at the World
Junior Athletics Championships. Just 21.64 seconds
later, he was jogging around the track of the Mario
Recordon Stadium with the South African flag draped
around his shoulders, on his victory lap to celebrate
his new World Junior Champion title in the half lap
event.
Man with the
Relay Plan
It was just one of the highlights of a journey that
saw Paul proudly don the green and gold of South
Africa a total of 12 times, and along the way he also
won a silver medal in the 400m at the 2006 Africa
Championships, as well as team silver medals in the
4x400m relay at both the 2006 African Championships
and 2006 Commonwealth Games. Today, the 38-year-
old is still very much involved in athletics, having
turned to coaching after his own racing days came to
an end, and he now bears the responsibility leading
the national relay squad to more medals. It’s been
quite some journey.
Speed to Burn
As a youngster growing up in Cape Town, Paul was
like most other young boys. He liked nothing more
than to kick a soccer ball around or play rugby with
his mates. In fact, he was so good at Rugby that
he earned himself a scholarship at the prestigious
Jan van Riebeeck Primary School in the suburb of
Tamboerskloof. “I played with Springbok captain Jean
de Villiers in that team,” he recalls. His natural speed
also saw him easily win the sprints on the track, in
spite of not having a coach.
While these hugely impressive performances looked
set to launch Paul into a successful international
career in the sport, it was actually his chance meeting
while in Moscow with one of South Africa’s foremost
sprint coaches, Magda Botha, that would have the
biggest impact on the teenager, and change the
direction his life would take. This was the start not
only of a relationship between coach and athlete that
lasted for 14 years, but a bond of incredible power,
one that almost tore him to pieces when Magda
succumbed to an infection after having battled
with Leukemia in 2013. To this day, Paul becomes
emotional when recounting those tragic memories,
and is reticent to speak about the last days of his
mentor, friend, confidante and surrogate mother.
From World Junior Champion to World Championship Relay
coach, sprinter Paul Gorries has come full circle in his
athletics career, and he firmly believes that South Africa
is poised to do big things on the relay stage at the Tokyo
Olympics in 2020. – BY MANFRED SEIDLER
56
ISSUE 125 DECEMBER 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
Making the Move
The most immediate impact Magda had on Paul was
to convince him to pack his bags at the end of 1999
and leave his roots in the Mother City to head up
the coast to Port Elizabeth. “Magda spoke to me in
Moscow about a career in athletics and I liked what
He ran for the school and ended up winning the
SA Under-13 Title in the 75m and 150m, while also
playing for his province in the prestigious schoolboy
rugby Craven Week. This doubling up of the two
sports continued for several years, but at age 17
Paul knew where his future lay when he earned an
international call-up in athletics. “1998 was the first
World Youth Games, held in Moscow in Russia, and
I qualified for the 100m and 200m,” he explains.
Team South Africa would return with seven individual
medals and two relays medals in athletics, and
Paul won three of those. He took gold in the 100m,
clocking 10.76 seconds for the win, and added a
silver in the 200m with a 21.40 final effort. He also
earned a silver medal with the 4x400m relay team.