Timothy Meuwsen’ s victory in the-81kg division in Kenya earlier this month breaks a 12-year drought since South Africa boasted a senior men’ s African judo champion.
London Olympian Jacques van Zyl was SA’ s last, having won in 2011, 2013 and 2014.
Timothy Onkgopole Meuwsen’ s story is no dimea-dozen tale. He’ s literally had a fight on his hands since birth.
Born to a counsellor mom and paramedic dad in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, tragedy struck at an early age when his dad was killed in a hijacking incident. A pair of human angels in the form of Rustenburg’ s Angela and Berry Meuwsen then adopted him, as his mom was no longer able to support him.
The Meuwsen parents spend their lives looking after people less fortunate than themselves, despite barely having two pennies to rub together, so funding has been a lifelong fight in Meuwsen’ s rise through the ranks at Tuks Judo.
And while Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie parades pipe dreams of bringing Formula One and VAR to South Africa, there have been many nights when judoka Meuwsen has simply been unable to put food on the table.
To this day, he has to rely on BackaBuddy social media funding and gymnastics coaching, and more recently sells Mauzer Sauna Suits and promotes Activ Endurance Shake to bring in extra money.
Already his status as an African champion has helped him become an ambassador for Team Rei Sports, seller of Ippon Gear judo gis( suits) and accessories.
Speaking about the 2026 African Championships, Meuwsen explained:“ These were my third champs. I fought in Egypt in 2024 and then Ivory Coast last year, where I won bronze.”
It took about a week for the full magnitude of his efforts to settle in but reality shows that his four fights only needed a total of 7 minutes 29 seconds to take him from zero to hero.
Taking us through his tournament, Meuwsen said:“ I fought Burundi’ s Guy Irakoze in the round of 16. He wasn’ t seeded but Burundi always have good backing and Japanese coaches. I’ m always highly critical of myself and wasn’ t really happy after that fight.”
Next up was Cameroon’ s Yohane Ngae.“ I’ ve fought him twice before and every time he comes back even stronger. This fight went into a Golden Score and I won with a throw I love, known as the Mollaei.”
Into the semifinal against Mali’ s Mahamadou Doucara and Meuwsen just tried to stay calm, listening to his favourite praise and worship music and trying not to stress.
He needn’ t have, it was his shortest fight of the championships, needing all of 30 seconds to down Doucara with a Shime-waza strangulation technique.
And then it was finals time up against 27-year-old Egyptian Abdelrahman Abdelghany.“ He’ s ranked No. 20 in the world, so a very, very good fighter.
“ It was an insane moment walking on to the mat with loudspeakers blaring music and announcing my name and I just told myself that I’ m not doing this for myself but for so many others back in SA who had helped me get to this point.”
The fight went by in a blur.“ There were a few grip exchanges, I got him on the ground where I’ m very comfortable, stood up and just knew there was a moment to seize. I went in for an O Goshi feint and the next thing I had him with a Tani-otoshi( hip throw to backwards throw).”
At 1min 09sec in total, it was his second shortest fight of the championships.“ Oh my gosh, I just threw an Olympian,” was his initial reaction.
It was one of the happiest days of his life.
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“ Finally standing on top of the podium, finally being able to give something back to people who have believed and invested in me.
“ I’ m hoping this gold medal brings more opportunities like getting into OPEX( SA’ s Olympic governing body’ s high-performance funding programme) and hopefully being part of Team SA at the Commonwealth Games later this year. I’ ve also booked a direct place into world champs later this year.
“ First up is a training camp in Japan later this month and then hopefully onto a grand prix event in China. I can’ t wait … I just feel this year is going to be so awesome!”
TuksSport head coach Charné Griesel, herself a former national judo champion, showered praise on her charge.
“ When I came in as head coach, we sat down and planned – 2025 was going to be a building year and 2026 a very important pivotal year … whatever happens in 2026 will determine what happens in 2027 / 28.
“ Timothy has always had extremely limited funding and we knew it would be difficult to qualify him without assistance as the national federation doesn’ t provide funding, even for high-performance athletes.
“ It’ s still an ongoing issue but we’ ve managed to get a few good people on board and possibly get him onto OPEX, for which he’ d need very good international results. We’ ve selected international tournaments very carefully to get both good results and good experience!
“ His latest results have put him in a good place where he can do a lot of damage in 2027 and 2028. It gives him ample opportunities to try and do training camps and more competitions … I’ m truly excited for what’ s in store for him with Comm Games around the corner and LA 2028.”
Meuwsen’ s birth name Onkgopole means“ remember me”. Minister McKenzie could do worse than remember Meuwsen.
To support Tim’ s 2028 Olympic quest, head to his BackaBuddy page.
https:// www. backabuddy. co. za / campaign / tims-2028-olympicqualification-quest
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