South African aspiring javelin thrower Armant van der Linden offered some uplifting words for athletes during a telephonic interview with the Advertiser.
Van der Linden (18), who’s been growing himself in the sport since the Advertiser first spoke to him in 2018, said: “The key is not to get lazy. I know we’re living in difficult times and if you’re an athlete, it’s easy to give up now and fall to being lazy but now is also the best time not to be lazy. Focus on what you want now and in the future.”
In the Boksburg South athlete’s case, what he wants is to compete with the best in the world in the sport and represent his country and to one day compete at the highest level of track and field athletics: the Olympic Games.
Considering his progressive trail in the sport since the Advertiser first spoke to him, the Hoërskool Garsfontein (Pretoria) matriculant has never lost his focus since.
His 2018 list of achievements includes a Gauteng schools gold medal, SA schools bronze, a Noord-Vaal division B gold, a Naboomspruit top 10 gold which accompanied his personal best throw of 67.73m, a King Price flash meeting gold and a top 30 gold in Potchefstroom.
Back then, he said his year 2019 goal was to throw the javelin 70m.
Some of his highs in 2019 was a 68.9m throw during a South African championships meeting before doing what he set out to do which is break the 70m mark when he outdid himself with a 73m effort with a 700g javelin. According to the rising star, it was a mark which was among the world’s best in the u-17 category that year.
He continued flirting with the 70m mark during an inter-high athletics meeting in Ruimsig early last year, claiming gold following a 69m effort.
He would go on to end the year by moving on to the 800g javelin, producing respective throws of 64.81 and 62m during two meetings held at the Tuks athletics stadium in early December.
The above was all achieved with a serious elbow injury which van der Linden has been carrying for over a year-and-a-half, although he told the Advertiser that it’s much better now.
With athletics also held hostage by the ongoing pandemic, the athletics star is just training to remain on top of his game.
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