In-form javelin thrower Armant van der Linden achieved his biggest feat yet when he was sensationally crowned the u-20 South African javelin throwing champion during the South African championships in Paarl on April 10.
It doesn’t end there.
The Boksburg gold medallist set his second personal-best mark in as many weeks en route to being crowned SA champ.
Having recently obliterated his old personal-best mark of 64.01m to set what was then his new mark of 68.11m at the Boksburg City Stadium, the former Hoërskool Dr EG Jansen learner saved his best for the biggest as he reached his long-term goal of 70m with his all-new 72.28m attempt.
The entire meeting ran from April 7 to 10.
“It feels unreal because I wasn’t the favourite for the meet, it was my teammate Zander van der Merwe – he was the favourite to win,” explained van der Linden.
“Before the throw, in my fifth round, I threw 61m, which was a big drop compared to my previous attempt. I then just told myself that I cannot throw this badly. I then just went all in and the 72m came in my sixth attempt.”
The Hoërskool Garsfontein matriculant has been battling with an elbow injury to his right arm – the same he used to be crowned national champion. It was a nerve-related injury that plagued him for over 12 months and threatened to cut his javelin journey short, but as he advised athletes all over Boksburg to not let the pandemic demotivate them – he remained true to his word and rose above.
Quizzed on what his latest achievement means to him, he continued: “It means a lot, considering how I’ve been struggling with injury this past year and a half and now it’s finally gone. So it meant a lot. And then also to be the underdog going into the championships made the victory even sweeter.
“I’d like to say thank you to my support structure. I don’t think I can say other words than just thank you because everyone has been there during the hard times, throughout my elbow injury which lasted for a year and a half. I’d like to particularly thank my coach and parents for the encouragement and support.”
His teammate, van der Merwe, finished second.
Also Read: Armant dreams big of throwing the javelin at the Olympics
Van der Linden hopes to be part of Team South Africa when Athletics South Africa names the team to represent the country at the world championships in August.
“We don’t know the team yet, but hopefully I will be part of it. I’m ranked fifth in the world, so hopefully, they choose me for the team.”
On what it takes to be SA champ, he explained: “Hard work, nothing else, just hard work. You don’t have to be the strongest or the fastest, just hard work. It’s just perfecting the technique.
“I’ve also been working on more finesse, more perfection in the technique, so it’s been more about breaking down the throw into multiple parts and then doing some new things. It was a lot of breaking down and doing everything step by step until I perfected it.
“My gym work played quite a big role too because I got stronger. We were throwing with the new 800g javelin – so it’s a senior javelin – you have to be strong enough to throw it.”
Van der Linden plans to study cybersecurity at Pearson Institute of Higher Education after matric – which is one of the very few tertiary institutes which offers the course.
Also Read: Local javelin thrower obliterates his old mark
