Lowveld shot put star adds more gold to her collection

It would seem as though local shot put athlete Ashley Erasmus has the Midas touch, as she not only won gold once more at the 2024 African Championships in Athletics, but also made South African athletics history.

Erasmus, a Hoërskool Nelspruit alumnus, competed in the biannual African Championships in athletics for the first time this year. The championships were held in Douala, Cameroon, from June 21 to 26, and Erasmus was one of South Africa’s representative athletes selected to take part.

While she does compete in both shot put and discus, shot put is her primary discipline and she placed all of her focus on it while in Douala. Erasmus’ time to shine came on June 24, the fourth day of the competition. Not fazed by the magnitude of the occasion, the 19-year-old from Mbombela proceeded to blow her competition away.

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She threw a mammoth 18.17m to take gold, a sizeable 1.08m further than second-placed countrywoman Miné de Klerk, who threw 17.09m. Another South African, Colette Uys, finished third with a distance of 16.28m. Erasmus’ gold medal throw entered her name into a good few record books.

She has now become the first South African woman to break the 18m barrier in shot put, surpassing Drienkie van Wyk’s 17.88m that she threw in 2002. She has also set a new South African and African U20 record for shot put, as well as a new African Championships in Athletics record for the discipline.

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Furthermore, the 18.17m throw now makes her the leading U20 woman in shot put in the world in 2024, which stands her in good stead ahead of the World Athletics U20 Championships in Peru in August.

This young star is still trying to process the magnitude of her achievement. “To be honest, I’m still trying to wrap my ahead around everything, but I’m extremely proud of my achievement and I know I still have my entire career ahead of me as a senior athlete to improve on this distance,” she said, touching on the fact this is her personal best.

“I’m extremely happy with my personal best, given that I’ve worked extremely hard for this distance and I couldn’t have asked for a better platform than the African champs to achieve it.”

Asked about what separated her from her competitors to such an extent that she could achieve such a distance, Erasmus put it down to her belief in herself. “I knew what needed to be done and I worked hard to make sure I would 100% reach the 18m mark, and because of that, I was very sure of myself and I think that really helped with my performance.”

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It still wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows though, as Erasmus did find it tough at times with the humidity in Cameroon. “As an athlete, you need to adapt, especially at a competition as important as this; no conditions can get you down,” she said.

Erasmus said she believes she could have done even better, but she won’t be beating herself up too much in this regard and will rather take great pride in what she achieved.

While the World Athletics U20 Championships are a little more than a month away, Erasmus already has her sights firmly set on the next Olympics. “The year in which I’m aiming to go is 2028, and I don’t just want to go to make up the team – I want to go to win and to make my mark.”