Dominique Scott-Efurd is prepared to put in the hard yards

Dominique Scott-Efurd already has a nickname. Everyone who knows her calls her “Dom”. But if we had to give her another moniker, it would be “Miss Consistency”.

She’s not the most talented distance runner South Africa has produced, but Scott-Efurd is a grinder and she has had to work her way to the top of her sport.

At the age of seven, when she ran her first cross country race, there were no signs of the heights she would ultimately
reach.

“I wasn’t even trying to compete,” she recalls.

“But I kept it up and slowly but surely I wanted to do better and I became more competitive.”

By the time she reached high school, Scott-Efurd showed enough improvement to prompt her parents, Mike and Renee, to find her a coach near their home in Cape Town.

After joining a group led by middle-distance legend Johan Fourie, ScottEfurd decided to give the sport a real go and she moved to Rhenish Girls High School in Stellenbosch to be closer to her coach.

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Though her performances were more solid than explosive, she managed to make enough of an impact on the track in her matric year to earn a scholarship to the University of Arkansas and it was on the collegiate circuit that she really began to shine.

Eventually graduating with a marketing degree in 2015 and marrying American partner Cameron Efurd, she opted to stay in the United States and launched her professional career.

And her progress since has been impressive, with her steady improvement establishing her as South Africa’s best female distance runner on the track, gradually lifting her to the global stage.

In 2019, she clocked 14:59.08 at a Diamond League meeting in London, becoming the second SA woman after Elana Meyer to dip under 15 minutes over the 5 000m distance.

Earlier this year, she set a personal best of 31:19.89 over 10 000m in Hengelo, crossing the line less than half a minute outside Meyer’s national record of 30:52.51, which has stood for 27 years.

While she has some work to do to rewrite the record books on the outdoor circuit, Scott-Efurd’s consistent progress has seen her break every national indoor record from 800m to 5 000m.

At major championships, she was 21st in the 10 000m final at the 2016 Rio Olympics and 15th in the 5 000m final at the 2019 World Championships in Doha.

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“Obviously I have some talent, but when I started running I wasn’t the best from day one. I’ve definitely had to work for it,” Scott-Efurd says.

“Some athletes just come out and they’re the best, but that’s not my story. I’d like to make leaps and bounds, but I’ve had to take small stepping stones since I started running, and making those gradual improvements keeps me motivated.”

Despite being controversially omitted from multiple national teams earlier in her career – including the squad for the 2017 World Championships in London – and having the option to switch allegiances by representing the United States, Scott-Efurd remains committed to her country of birth.

“I want to keep running for South Africa,” she says.

“I moved overseas, but I do not want to turn my back on SA. I worked hard to get into the South African team.”

Lining up again for the SA athletics squad at the Tokyo Olympics, ScottEfurd missed out on the 5 000m final last week, finishing 13th in her heat, but she will have another crack in today’s 10 000m final.

And though she is unlikely to emulate Meyer’s silver medal performance at the 1992 Barcelona Games, the 29-year-old
athlete will hope to make her presence felt by targeting a top-10 finish, and if she is at her best she should give the long-standing national record a real shake.

As always, she will be up against faster, more talented athletes who will be pushing the pace up front in the hunt for international glory.

But Scott-Efurd has earned her place in the field against the best distance runners in the world and even if a medal is beyond her reach, she will grind it out once again.

– wesleyb@citizen.co.za