Let’s be wary of South Africa's track and field revival

South Africa's Wayde Van Niekerk reacts after the semi-finals of the men's 400m athletics event at the 2017 IAAF World Championships at the London Stadium in London on August 6, 2017. PHOTO | JEWEL SAMAD |

What you need to know:

  • Barring a calamity of gargantuan proportions, van Niekerk could even be pushed to a sub-43 world record time by in-form rivals Isaac Makwala of Botswana and Stephen Gardiner of The Bahamas.

From 11.50pm (Kenyan time) on Tuesday, South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk will attempt to step into the huge shoes left by Jamaican sprints legend Usain Bolt as the poster boy of global athletics by winning the 400 metres final at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford.

Barring a calamity of gargantuan proportions, van Niekerk could even be pushed to a sub-43 world record time by in-form rivals Isaac Makwala of Botswana and Stephen Gardiner of The Bahamas.

Van Niekerk’s victory will be hot on the heels of the long jump gold and bronze medals won by South Africans Luvo Manyonga and Ruswahl Samaai, respectively, on Saturday night.

“Mzansi” people could be celebrating another gold at the weekend in the women’s 800 metres where Caster Semenya remains hot favourite. These brilliant performances by the South Africans come hot on the heels of the last IAAF World Under-18 Championships in Nairobi where the “rainbow nation” won the overall title with five gold medals, three silver and as many bronze.

We all remember the triumphs by Tsenolo Lemao (boys’ 100 metres), Retshidisitswe Mlenga (boys’ 200m), Sokwakhana Zazini (boys’ 400m hurdles), Breyton Poole (boys’ high jump) and Zeney van der Walt (girls’ 400m hurdles).

These performances, that come at a time when Kenya will almost certainly lose the overall title at the World Championships here, should worry us.

The South African athletes agree that their federation can hardly stake any claim to being responsible for the good fortunes of the sport, with sheer determination by individual athletes, coupled with impeccable infrastructure being the raison d’etre for the resurgence.

Samaai, for instance, says he was spurred on to his long jump medal by the juniors’ success in Nairobi, while the High Performance Training Centre in Pretoria has also been pivotal to improved times and distances by South African athletes. It’s a pity we have not consolidated our gains in the disciplines outside the traditional mid and long distance forte.

At the Nairobi youth championships, it was sad, for instance, to see little or no focus on the sprints, jumps and throws, despite the fact that two years ago Kenya won world titles in the 400m hurdles and javelin in Beijing.

World javelin champion Julius Yego was livid upon seeing Kenya’s lone javelin thrower at Kasarani, Ita Nao Leshan, compete without a coach on the sidelines, and without relevant throwing spikes, thus exposing him to injury.

We seem to be resting on our laurels while the rest of the world, especially South Africa, is catching up fast.

Let’s hope that losing the overall world title here this weekend will be a reality check and loud wake up call to Athletics Kenya to change tack and not merely bank on natural talent coming through from cradle to podium, but invest in new strategies, structures and personnel too.