Sabelo Dhlamini (28) from Vosloorus is a six-times Central Gauteng Athletic (CGA) champion in 400m hurdles and represented South Africa during the 22nd African Championships at Saint Pierre Mauritius, from June 8-12 last year.
He also obtained a double gold medal from the University Sports South Africa (USSA) Championship at Bloemfontein in May.
According to Dhlamini, he faced many challenges throughout his athletic career; things like lacking a pair of running spikes and not having a coach. Despite this, he is ranked number 81 in the world and 42 on the Road to Budapest list.
He said he was two spots away from qualifying for the World Championships in Budapest. Qualifications to major championships are based on time qualifiers then rankings.
“I wasn’t able to run the qualifying time in season but had good rankings, so me having a majorly domestic season killed my chances of being selected this year for the world championships,”
Dhlamini said his last performance during the Athletics South Africa (ASA) championships felt good as he won his heat two days before with the season’s best time, so going into the final he felt confident he would get a medal.
“The first 200m of the race was very smooth. I remember looking at the eventual champion after hurdle five, thinking I’m in front of him and I can win. However, when I got to the seventh hurdle, I touched the hurdle and that told me I was getting fatigued and the silver medal passed me. I then hit the eighth hurdle. On the last hurdle I lost my balance and the bronze medal was gone,” Dhlamini explained.
The hurdler said to improve his performance he will fix his stride frequency because he tends to use too much energy. He added that he is working on his consistency as well.
He said the thing that makes him lose focus is that he gets carried away with excitement during big races and runs on others people’s frequencies and pace instead of the sticking to his own race plan.
“I started hurdles in primary school and became one of the top runners in my grade,” said Dhlamini.
Dhlamini recently ventured into coaching as he wants to inspire some of the nations next hurdles, track and field stars. He is on the lookout for young runners.
“I feel like South Africa has so much raw talent,” said Dhlamini.
He added that he wants to inspire children in townships and rural areas.
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