TRACK & FIELD
The Speed Kings
Check out some of the latest news to come out of the South African Track and Field scene , with the focus this month on the men ’ s 100m sprinters , where hopes are high of our relay team bringing home a medal later this year . – BY WILHELM DE SWART & SEAN FALCONER
Passion for Speed
Many in the sport believe that a well-trained South African 4x100m relay team can medal at the Tokyo Olympics later this year , or the next World Championships , especially thanks to Thando Dlodlo ’ s recent change of club .
The first time Thando lines up to race the
100 metres this season , he will not only be sporting the stripes of TuksAthletics for the first time , but he will also start an exciting new chapter in South African sprinting . That ’ s because every member of the South African 4x100m relay team that set the new national and African record of 37.65 seconds during the 2019 World Championships in Doha , is now based at the same club . That saw Thando team up with Simon Magakwe , Clarence Munyai and Akani Simbine to set the second-fastest time during the World Champs heats , clocking 37.65 . The South Africans went to finish fifth in the final , running 37.73 .
Furthermore , the national relay coach , Paul Gorries , is at Tuks as well . According to Thando , he and Paul got talking during the Doha championships . “ It is what convinced me to join Tuks , because Paul will be coaching me .”
The 21-year-old is one of the most exciting prospects in South African sprinting today , and he is getting faster each year . In 2014 he dipped under 11 seconds for 100m for the first time , clocking 10.96 . By 2019 , he had improved his personal best time to 10.08 , making him one of just 13 local sprinters to have gone faster than 10.10 .
The Tuks sprinter believes he is capable of running faster times , even dipping under 10 seconds , and says it is only a matter of working on a few specifics of his technique to gain those extra hundredths of a second . “ My best trait as a sprinter at the moment is my start . That is why I ran the first leg of the relay during the Doha World Championships . During the final , I got to race against Christian Coleman . For years I have been following the careers of the world ’ s best sprinters on television . To be running shoulder to shoulder with them is something I will remember for some time to come .”
Thando is a real student of sprinting , and can rattle off stats easily , including which sprinter raced what time when , and why it was a significant breakthrough in sprinting , but it is Akani Simbine and Wayde van Niekerk who he considers to be his local heroes . “ They proved that it is possible to be one of the world ’ s best by training in South Africa .”
Thando Dlodlo
Speed is genuinely Thando ’ s passion – and it is not only about beating the stopwatch on the athletics track . The power and speed of motor car engines also get his adrenaline pumping , and there is nothing he likes more than to get behind a car ’ s steering wheel and get the engine to perform at its maximum , while ‘ smoking ’ the wheels . It is called spinning , and is considered to be the fastest-growing extreme motorsport in South Africa .
According to Thando , he is far from becoming a champion in spinning , and it not his priority at the moment , anyway , because he says he has unfinished business on the track . There is still the quest to qualify for the Olympics , medals to be won and records to be broken .
Relay Medals Predicted
The South African men ’ s 4x100m relay team will medal at the World Relay Championships in Poland in May , and then at the Tokyo Olympic Games , says national relay team ’ s manager Danie Cornelius – and all it will take is less than 38 seconds of perfection .
It is 20 years since the South African 4x100m
relay team won the country ’ s only medal at the World Championships . In 2001 , Morne Nagel , Corne du Plessis , Lee-Roy Newton and Mathew Quinn won the silver medal in Edmonton , Canada , but that was upgraded to gold in 2005 when the winning US team was belatedly disqualified for a doping infringement by one of its members , Tim Montgomery . Up to now , no South African 4x100m relay team has ever reached an Olympic final .
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Therefore , given South Africa ’ s overall 4x100m relay team history , it is a bold prediction to say the country will medal in Poland and Japan this year , but Danie says it is doable , provided the team lives up to its potential . He believes that statistics are only an indicator of what happened in the past , and one has got to live for the moment . That is why he wants 2021 to be a breakthrough year for the South African relay team . “ I want our focus , for now , to be on the 4x100m relay . It is a case of first things first , because |
one breakthrough will be a confidence booster for everyone ,” he says .
In part , his confidence sprouts from what happened during the 2019 World Championships in Doha . During the heats , the South African set a new Africa and national record , running 37.65 . They finished fifth in the final with a time of 37.73 , and that result could have been better if not for small mistakes made during the race , says Danie . He also feels that there
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Images : Reg Caldecott |
56 ISSUE 138 FEBRUARY 2021 / www . modernathlete . co . za