Kyle launches his PB 21.21 put at the 2021 USSA Champs

TRACK & FIELD

In May , Kyle Blignaut confidently promised that he would compete in the shot put final at the Tokyo Olympic Games , and in August the young athlete delivered on that promise . Now , with his confidence even further boosted , he is looking to do even better on the world stage . – BY WILHELM DE

SWARDT & SEAN FALCONER

Images : Reg Caldecott

Kyle threw 20.97 metres in the qualifying round on 3 August , the eighth-best-distance overall out of the 12 athletes to go through to the final , and he was also the youngest competitor in the final . ( Interestingly , there actually was another ‘ South African ’ in the final , with Italy ’ s Zane Weir qualifying with a throw of 21.25m . He was born in South Africa and grew up in Amanzimtoti in KZN , and even qualified for Tokyo earlier this year while competing in Potchefstroom .)

Ahead of the final on 5 August , Kyle admits that his emotions were a bit up and down . In an interview with Gary Lemke for www . teamsa . co . za , he says , “ Before the final I wrote down a few notes on my phone . It was going to be my reaction if I had a disappointing final … you know , because you get so many WhatsApps and media asking what went wrong , that I ’ d made notes . ‘ Today was not to be , it was not my day ’ was an example … Then I looked at my notes long and hard , and hit the delete button . Instead I wrote down ‘ Thank you ’ messages . I had to get the negativity out of my thought process .”

CHASING HIS DREAMS

When the final began , Kyle ’ s first throw travelled a somewhat disappointing 20.29m , putting him ninth with five throws to come . He followed that with a nothrow , and while waiting for the third round of puts , he sat down to regroup . “ I thought to myself , do you want to be sending those ‘ today was not to be , it wasn ’ t my day ’ messages , or was it going to be ‘ thank you ’ messages ?” he says .

His third throw travelled 21.00m , which proved to be his best effort of the final and saw him finish sixth overall , the new highest Olympic placing for a South African in the event . That was mission accomplished , says Kyle .

“ Before the Games , my coach and I had at first set our goal at just making the Olympics . Then it was revised and it became about making the final . Then it became about finishing in the top six . I ’ d come in thinking I ’ d be looking between 20.80m and 21.20m , so I ’ ve got to be happy with 21.00m . It all goes up from here .”

In another interview , with Jaco Human of the Krugersdorp News , Kyle says that the time he spent in Tokyo was very different to anything he had experienced before , due to the strict COVID safety regulations enforced . “ We chase distances , so it wasn ’ t a big deal that there wasn ’ t a crowd , but we could ’ ve just as well been in a hotel room here in South Africa . You sat in that room , ate there and couldn ’ t go out . It was a very stressful and boring environment . But I think that ’ s the way it should be . You train your entire life for this event , so you need to just sit and get your mind right .”

UNLOCKING THE POTENTIAL

Kyle played rugby for a while at school , but decided to focus on athletics , and in 2018 he won the gold medal at the World Junior Championships in Finland . This year he won gold at both the South African Senior Championships and the South African Universities Championships , and also improved his best distance to 21.21m at the USSA Champs , the third best throw ever by a South African , behind Janus ( 21.97m ) and Orazio Cremona ( 21.51m ). Kyle has trained under coach Pierre Blignaut ( no relation ) since he was nine years old , at Pierre ’ s Shot Put and Discus Academy in Krugersdorp , and Pierre accompanied him to Tokyo as one of the South African team ’ s throwing coaches .

With his Olympic success still fresh in the mind , Kyle says he aims to compete at the World Champs and Commonwealth Games next year , and then he wants to really go for it at the 2024 Paris Olympics . In that sense , he has age on his side , as shot putters tend to peak in their late 20s . “ I can still develop a lot in coming years , and hopefully I can be at the forefront of a new era in the shot put ,” he says . “ At 21 , I am grateful to have already had the opportunity to compete against some of the best athletes in the world . I am a very competitive person … and I believe I ’ ll get a medal at the next Games !”

Kyle says shot put is 65 % technique and 35 % brute strength

This article is based on a media release supplied by The Department of Sport ( TuksSport ) at the University of Pretoria . Tuks is home to some of the best sporting opportunities in the world , with more than 30 sport clubs . To find out more , go to www . up . ac . za / tukssport .

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