Medal contenders give South African athletics some hope again

Now that the domestic track and field season has come to a close, we have a much better idea of what to expect from the national team at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August.

While we have more to shout about than we’ve had in the last few years, however, an honest assessment of potential medal hopefuls is that it doesn’t look great. But it does look better.

Perhaps most promising has been the return to form of 400m world record holder Wayde van Niekerk, who stepped on the track at the recent SA Championships in Potchefstroom looking stronger than he’s ever been, coasting to victory and proving he is going to be a force again when he gets going on the international circuit.

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Similarly, Akani Simbine looks proper good. He dipped under 10 seconds in the 100m heats and semifinals at the national championships, and he looks ready to take on the world’s fastest athletes once again.

In the field, Kyle Blignaut hardly competed during the domestic season, but he turned out at the ASA Grand Prix meeting in Potchefstroom this week and it’s clear he has been working hard in the gym.

He has already gone over 20 metres this year, which is a good sign, especially considering he hasn’t even been throwing much in training. Once he starts working on his technique, it looks like he’s going to crack it overseas as he aims to peak at the global championships.

READ MORE: ‘I’m in the shape of my life’: Kyle Blignaut targets World Champs medal

One-lap hurdlers Zene van der Walt and Soks Zazini are also looking good, but both of them will need to make some significant improvements if they want to be competitive at the highest level.

The form of the hurdlers, however, adds to the country’s 400m depth and it does suggest South Africa has a real chance for a medal in the mixed 4x400m relay at the World Championships.

This will, of course, require the buy-in from various athletes, and with the mixed relay taking place in the early stages of the global showpiece, national relay coach Paul Gorries is going to have to be very convincing in his discussions with them because few athletes are going to want to use that much energy before they even get going in their individual events.

Some hope

So there are some real medal chances for the SA team, which is more than we’ve been able to say at major championships in recent years and it’s great to see our top athletes showing such good form.

But we have no more than a handful of real podium contenders and we’re going to need all of them to shine if we’re going to see a medal haul anything like we saw at the 2016 Rio Olympics and the 2017 World Championships.

There’s no need to be negative, but we must be realistic, and it’s going to still be some time before South African athletics makes a real comeback. At least we have hope again.