Former Lowvelder makes Olympic dreams come true
Benjamin Richardson, who was born and raised in the Lowveld before moving to Pretoria in 2020, has finally achieved his goal of reaching the Olympic Games, after winning the men’s 200m race at the ASA Senior Track & Field National Championships.
The ASA Senior Track & Field National Championships were held in Pietermaritzburg from April 18 to 21, with the country’s very best athletes taking to Msunduzi Stadium in a bid for national glory and possible Olympic qualification.
Among them was the 20-year-old Benjamin ‘Benji’ Richardson, a former Nelspruit Primary School and Curro Nelspruit learner.
He has been an athletics star for as long as he could walk and run, with a host of local records to his name in the Lowveld at primary school level. His records aren’t merely confined to the Lowveld, either, as he was part of the SA 4x100m relay team that broke the U20 world record at the U20 World Athletics Championships in Kenya in 2021.
ALSO READ: Benji and co break world record
Nearly three years on, though, he will be setting his sights on the biggest stage yet – the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. At the senior SA championships, Richardson had a specific target in his sights: to beat legendary SA athlete Wayde van Niekerk and qualify for the Olympics.
In order to do so, he needed to run a 200m race in 20.16s or better. He charged his way to victory, leading the race from start to finish. When the time first popped up on the screen, it showed he had run an unofficial time of 20.17s, agonisingly short of the mark needed.
However, when the official time came through, he was confirmed to have run a time of 20.16s, exactly the benchmark needed. Van Niekerk was close behind in second place, clocking a time of 20.31s.
This now means Richardson will set off for Paris in a few months to race against the best in the world in the 200m as well as the 4x100m relay, and fly the South African flag high.
