At the beginning of 2016 Gezelle had stars in her eyes. Having just finished school, the 2014 Youth Olympics gold medallist in the 400m hurdles left the Cape for Gauteng to begin her studies at the University of Pretoria, on a scholarship from the Tukkies High Performance Centre( HPC), but says she took time to get used to all the changes, and admits that she possibly could have pushed herself a bit harder this past year.“ Mentally I am hard on myself, but physically I think I am still a bit scared to push myself too hard, because I am still young. But that’ s where it really helps to be able to train with older, experienced 400m hurdlers like Wenda Nel, LJ van Zyl and Cornel Fredericks at the HPC, because usually your body can take more than your minds tells you, and they push me to try harder. Wenda is particularly motivating- often in training she’ ll say,‘ Come on, Gezellie, just one more,’ when I feel like I am going to die on the track! To see Wenda do so well this past year was really a blessing, because training with her is like having a barometer that gives me a good indication of where I am as an athlete. She is my inspiration and role model.”
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Great Expectations
Much is expected from Gezelle, thanks to the way she burst on to the world stage. At the end of 2013 the young sprinter from Vredenburg on the West Coast( near Saldanha) moved schools to La Rochelle in Paarl, a girls’ school known for its strong athletics programme, and the higher level of coaching and competition saw her qualify for the African Youth Games in Botswana, where she won the 400m hurdles.
“ That is still actually my number one standout moment in my athletics career, because that was when I realised I had more potential than I originally thought. I realised I just needed to believe in myself, because I had been training hard but was still struggling to break 60 seconds, so I went to Botswana telling myself,‘ The next one better be under 60 seconds, Gezellie!” And that’ s what happened. I ran a 58 in the semi-final and 57.9 in the final to set a new SA Youth Record. I was ecstatic!”
Even better, that win saw her selected for the Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China, where she made it to the final, and came from behind with a superhuman finish to win the gold medal in 57.91 – another SA Youth Record, and more importantly, the first ever gold by a South African at these relatively new Games.“ I actually made everybody stress for the first 200m of that final, because I was coming just about dead last. But then as we started the last bend, I told myself,
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‘ Look here, Gezellie, this is the same bend you’ ve been training so hard in all those 150m sprints this week in training, so why would you just give up now and come last?’ From there my mind switched, and I won!”
Instant
Fame
Unsurprisingly, winning that gold catapulted Gezelle into the national limelight, and suddenly the shy teenager had camera crews following her around.“ In the beginning I wasn’ t really comfortable with it at all, and it made focusing on my important grade 11 schoolwork hard, but I eventually got used to it. I’ m still a bit shy when it comes to interviews, but I understand that I need to do them. Luckily, things kind of went back to normal, but there would still be a few cameras at times. It’ s chilled now, more relaxed.”
More success followed as Gezelle won the SA Junior Champs title in 2015, followed by the CAA Southern Region Under-20 Champs title in 2016. Now in her second year at Tuks, having changed her study direction from sport science to sport management,
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Images: Reg Caldecott, Wessel Oosthuizen / SASCOC Images & Courtesy PUMA |