Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 67, February 2015 | Seite 19

GENAAgain
on the Go

feature

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Early in 2013, schoolgirl Gena Lofstrand made a sensational entrance to
the senior SA track scene when she claimed an unprecedented treble of the
SA Schools, SA Junior and SA Senior 800m titles in quick succession. Having
recovered from an injury scare for much of 2014, she is now ready to set the
track alight again in 2015. – BY SEAN FALCONER

T

he women’s 800m looks set to be one of the
highlight events of the 2015 SA track and field season,
now that three of the country’s brightest middle-distance
talents have moved to Potchefstroom to join the already
formidable North West University (NWU Pukke) athletics
set-up. Gena Lofstrand, Gira Carstens and Caster Semenya will
be training under former SA star athlete Jean Verster, and the
three women will undoubtedly benefit from training together.
For her part, Gena is excited about refocusing on her training
while starting her degree in Sports Science at Pukke, having
taken a gap year in 2014, but then picking up a few injury
problems that marred her year.
“I had two stress fractures last year, so I was unable to defend
my title at the SA Champs, but I did make it to the semi’s at
the World Junior Champs in Oregon in the USA. However,
I only started training properly a month before Worlds, so
I didn’t do as well as I hoped I would. Still, it was a great
experience, and I didn’t feel as much pressure because I knew
I had been injured for a long time. I’ve learnt so much from
those injuries, and feel I now know how to help prevent them
again, so hopefully I will make up for it this year.”

be rewarded with good results. Of my three big wins in 2013,
the SA Seniors is my favourite. I didn’t expect to win, and I
didn’t know how big my lead was – I only saw on television
that night how far ahead I was – and I was so worried that the
other girls would catch me!”
Looking ahead to 2015, she says her big goals this year are
to stay injury-free, to break the two-minute barrier and then
do well on the European circuit. “The times I ran were not
bad for a junior, but I’ve definitely got a sub-2:00 in me. That
is the big target for all women in 800m, and now that I have
the opportunity to train with Caster, who has done it, I think I
can do it as well. And then it will be such a great experience to
represent South Africa at senior level at the World Champs in
Beijing as well as competing at the World Student Games.
It’s going to be a big year for me!”

Images: Courtesy Gena Lofstrand

Gena’s Journey

Gena started running when she was 12, doing cross country
races for fun, and reckons she got her running genes from
her father. “He is very athletic, waking up at 4am every day to
mountain bike. He ran cross country and track at school, and
has done a few Comrades as well as triathlons.” In high school
she ran track, but only decided to focus on the 800m in 2012,
and that year she represented KZN at the SA Youth Champs,
but says she didn’t do very well. “That just motivated me to
work harder, and a year later it was very exciting to see that
if I put in the hard work and was really disciplined, I would

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