SA’s men 4x100m-relay team aims for podium place at World Champs

Don’t mess up, then there will be a real chance to win a medal.

In a nutshell, that is what this weekend’s World Relay Championships in Silesia, Poland, will boil down to for the SA 4x100m men’s relay team. The team is incidentally all local athletes associated with TuksAthletics.

The gold medal is undoubtedly up for grabs after the USA and Jamaica announced they won’t be competing. Since the inception of the relay championships in 2014, the USA has twice won gold in the 4x100m men’s relay and Jamaica once. Brazil was victorious in 2019.

From a statistics perspective, Britain ought to be a definite medal contender on Sunday. They are the one team that has been consistently running sub 38 seconds. In 2017 the clocked 37.47s and in 2018 they won the race in 37.61s.

During the 2019 season, only the USA was faster, clocking 37.10s, while the British team ran 37.36s.

This season, the Chinese 4x100m relay team is so far the fastest. In March, they ran 38.23s. Man for man, the South Africans are, however, faster. Akani Simbine officially clocked 9.99s and ran 9.82s wind-assisted. Gift Leotela season’s best is 10.16s while he ran 9.94s wind-assisted. Thando Dlodlo ran 10.21s. Luxolo Adams’s best so far is 10.07s wind-assisted.

The 2019 World Championships in Doha was the big breakthrough for the SA men’s 4x100m-relay team. They were the second-fastest in the heats, setting a time of 37.65s. It is an African record. Unfortunately, in the final, there was a slight hiccup. It led to the team finishing fifth (37.73s).

The important thing is that they had dipped under 38 seconds twice.

Near the same team will be racing again over the weekend. Dlodlo should start with Leotela making his national relay debut for South Africa, running the second leg passing to Clarence Munyai. Simbine will sprint for the line. The final decision is, however, for Paul Gorries (national coach) to make. Adams or Emile Erasmus could run during the heats.

The athletes don’t mind who is going to run. They are one team with one goal. It is to medal.

According to the Tuks based Simbine, he can’t wait to start racing.

“We have done what needs to be done during training. It is now about seeing how fast we are going to be during a race. The fact that the USA and Jamaica won’t be competing does not change anything. Relay running is about doing the job, passing the baton making no mistakes. If nothing goes wrong, we could medal. Even win,” he explained.

Munyai shares Simbine’s sentiment.

“It has been two years since Doha. So, it is exciting to be racing for South Africa again. I really believe we can win,” said Munyai.

Dlodlo sees the World Relays as a building towards the Tokyo Olympics.

“It is essential to test ourselves against the best because that is the only way to see how we handle pressure,” Dlodlo remarked.

The South African 4x400m relay team is Lythe Pillay, Berend Koekemoer, Zakithi Nene, Oscar Mavundla and Ranti Dikgale.

The mixed 4x400m-relay team is Simon Khuzwayo, Ranti Dikgale, Taylon Bieldt, Marli Viljoen and Deleen Mpiti.