TRACK & FIELD
Medals , Titles and More
The trio of Benjamin Richardson , Bradley Nkoana and Jovan van Vuuren from the Tuks Club at Pretoria University have been collecting national titles or medals and helping to keep SA track and field flying in 2022 . – BY WILHELM DE SWARDT with SEAN FALCONER
Collecting Titles
Benjamin Richardson
Benjamin Richardson seems to love nothing more than to medal at national athletics championships . The 18-year-old ’ s tally for this season is three gold medals and a bronze , claiming the South African Under-20 titles over 100 and 200 metres , as well as the USSA Championships 100m title , and during the South African Senior Championships , he won a bronze medal in the 200 metres .
His medal haul should be no surprise . Over the last four years , the Tuks sprinter has improved his personal best time over 100m by nearly a second . In 2019 it was 10.87 , now it is 10.08 . That means Benjamin is faster than SA Record-holder Akani Simbine was when he was 18 . His progression over 200m is equally impressive : In 2020 his personal best was 21.01 , this season he clocked a time of 20.67 .
Still , Benjamin is not one to rest on his laurels . One would have expected that he would have been pleased to run 10.08s at the end of April in Gaberone , Botswana , but the Tuks athlete has mixed feelings about it , because he has finished second that race . “ I guess it is a big deal , running 10.08 , but it does not make me happy , because I knew I could have done better . But I think I have to accept what I have achieved , and hopefully soon , I will run a faster time ,” he says .
Asked what he has to do to gain that hundredth of a second , Benjamin says , “ I need to work on staying calm . As soon as I get out of the starting blocks and someone is ahead of me , I start to rush things and not think clearly . It is costing me .” On the other hand , one thing Benjamin has going for him is that he never gives up , and he proved that during the recent USSA Championships in Cape Town . He was certainly not the fastest out of the starting blocks , and it took him 50 metres to draw level with the leaders , but there was no stopping him once he did so and he took the title in 10.53 .
One can ’ t help but compare Benjamin ’ s running style to that of Usain Bolt , but Benjamin will be the first to admit there is still a lot of hard work to be done before he can be compared to the Jamaican sprint legend . Nevertheless , from a physical perspective , he is on par with Bolt : The Jamaican is 1.95 metres tall and wears size 13 shoes , while Richardson around 1.91m – he is not quite sure how tall he is – and he wears a size 12 shoe . And like Bolt , Benjamin is equally at home in both the 100m and 200m events , but when asked which he prefers , he says , “ At the moment , I like the 100 metres , but I think the 200 metres will suit me better in the long run .”
Jovan van Vuuren
Big Last Jump
They say , “ cometh the hour , cometh the man ,” which means that when it matters most , you stand up to be counted . That ’ s what Tuks student Jovan van Vuuren did brilliantly to win the gold medal in the men ’ s long jump during the South African Athletics Championships in Cape Town .
At the start of the last round of jumps , he was lying second . Cheswill Johnson had jumped 8.02 metres , while Van Vuuren ’ s best was 7.92m . Due to windy conditions , every jump boiled down to luck and good timing between gusts , and Jovan says he was not sure what to expect from his last jump . “ I had so many thoughts crossing my mind , and for a moment , I thought winning silver would still be a good result ... But that was only for a moment . I had worked too hard to give up . I had to make my last jump count . If it did not work out , so be it , but knowing I gave it my all was all that mattered ,” he says .
“ The fear of overstepping made me overcompensate and I hardly touched the board , but it did not matter . I had jumped 8.04 metres to win my first national title . The fact that I had jumped further than eight metres made it even more special , because I have
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