Wenda Nel is set for one more season before retirement
TRACK & FIELD
One More Round for Wenda
South African 400m hurdles champion Wenda Nel can honestly claim to have been there and done that . In a glittering career , she won bronze at the Commonwealth Games , was a World Champs finalist , and claimed two African titles as well as nine South African titles . But as they say , all good things must come to an end …
Now 34 , Wenda has decided to retire at the end of the season , but before she does that , she hopes to “ tick off a few more boxes ,” as she puts it . “ The plan was actually to retire last year , but throughout the season , there were so many uncertainties . Even after I had qualified for the Tokyo Olympics , nothing was certain – it felt like the Games could be cancelled at any moment . Then my last race in 2021 was an anti-climax … and I did not want to end my hurdling career like that !”
Wenda admits that the Birmingham Commonwealth Games did partly influence her decision to keep going . She won a bronze medal at the 2018 Gold Coast Games in Australia , and says getting to Birmingham is a great incentive to continue competing , as is the World Champs in the USA . “ It would be nice to compete one more time at the Games , and maybe a World Champs , too . Who knows , I might even get to run a final . But it is going to be about first things first ... Before I can dream , I must qualify .”
“ Every athlete hopes to end their career with that one final outstanding performance , but I am not obsessing about it ,” she adds . “ It is more important to savour every moment on the track . If I run the slowest time of my career in my last race , I will not consider myself a failure . I am at peace as to how my career played out , and I consider 2022 as a blessing to my athletics journey .”
Wonderful Memories
Wenda has enjoyed many highlights over the past 12 years on the track . She won her first senior national title in 2010 and has dominated the SA women ’ s 400m hurdles since then , winning the title nine times and only being beaten at the SA Champs in 2013 and 2019 . She also added five 4x400m relay national titles as part of the Gauteng North team .
One of her best performances at SA Champs was undoubtedly her 2018 duel with fellow Tuks and Gauteng North athlete Zeney van der Walt , a former World Junior and World Youth Champion . Heading towards the last hurdle in that national champs final , Wenda and Zeney were running shoulder-to-shoulder , but the younger athlete unfortunately made the slightest of errors on her final jump and lost a fraction of speed . The two were still so close that Wenda ’ s winning margin was just four hundredths of a second , 55.01 to 55.05 !
In 2014 and 2016 , Wenda was crowned African 400m-hurdles champion , and helped the South African team claim the 2016 4x400m relay continental title as well . As mentioned , she claimed a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2018 , and in both 2016 and 2021 she competed at the Olympics , reaching the semi-final round in both meets . However , she says her biggest “ Wow moment ” came in 2015 .
That year she ran 54.37 at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Beijing , China , setting her personal best time , and then went on to finish seventh in final of the 2015 World Championships , also in Beijing . Looking back on that PB run , Wenda says , “ Anyone who wants to write about my race should use the word ‘ wow ,’ because it describes my feelings perfectly . Every hurdler hopes for that one perfect race when your stride rhythm is perfect , and everything plays out as it should . If that happens , it is ‘ wow ’.”
Akani Not Focused on Medals
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This year , consistency and not medals will be the main focus when South Africa ’ s fastest man , Akani Simbine , lines up to race the 100 metres . This may sound a bit strange ... After all , Akani has a Commonwealth Games title to defend in Birmingham , and there is a World Championships in the USA just before that as well . However , his coach , Werner Prinsloo , has a good reason for wanting to forget about medals for now , and it all stems from the 100m final at the Tokyo Olympic Games last year . |
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final happened . It was the result we did not expect , and we were both devastated ,” says Werner .
In the end , Akani only just scraped into the final , having finished fourth in his semi-final heat and only going through to the final as a fastest qualifier , in spite of clocking 9.90 , and then in the final he crossed the line fourth , missing out on the medals by the narrowest margin of just 0.04 seconds . Werner thinks that what happened in that semi-final might have had a psychological impact on Akani .
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Images : Reg Caldecott |
“ This year , I want Akani to be consistent when he races . Last year he was consistent . He would run a good race and then be average the next time . If Akani races 12 times , I want him to clock 9.9-something at least nine times , and ideally , four times should be faster than 9.90 . If he gets to do so , the results will take care of themselves ,” says the experienced coach .
Weight of Expectation
Going into the Olympics , Akani was widely considered one of the favourites to win the title , or at least finish on the podium . He had finished fifth in the 100m final at the 2016 Olympics and 2017 World Champs , then moved up to fourth at the 2019 World Champs , and shortly before the Tokyo Games , he set a new African record . “ When Akani ran 9.84 seconds in Hungary about three weeks before he had to race at the Olympics , I thought we were on track to win a medal . But then the Olympic
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“ To run 9.90 in the semi-final and only finish fourth is never good . Three athletes dipped under 9.85 , and it is certainly one of the fastest ever semi-final races at an Olympic Games . I could see that Akani was under pressure on the day of the final . The thinking was that if it took 9.90 to qualify for the final , what it would take to win ? That uncertainty led to Akani not being at his best .”
Time for Introspection
According to Werner , both of them went through a rollercoaster of emotions after the final . “ Afterwards , I could not help but wonder whether it was all worth it . That 9.84 race did not matter anymore . All I could think about was that we had failed . From the start of the season , there was only one goal , to medal in Tokyo , and there comes a time when you ask yourself what more
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Akani Simbine is focusing on consistency this year
must we do to win a medal at the Olympic Games ? How hard and long must Akani train ?” he says .
“ At first , Akani and I were angry with ourselves and everyone around us , and he lost all motivation . He was ‘ switched off ’ for the rest of his races , and just went through the motions . That is why another challenge for this year is to make sure he is mentally a bit tougher . Thankfully , we are now at a stage where we have accepted what happened , and that we need to learn from it and try take some positives from those Tokyo Olympics .”
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