SA’s hopes now on shot-put athlete of Pretoria for fourth Olympic medal
The young field athlete from Pretoria, Kyle Blignaut, is probably South Africa's last hope for a medal in athletics at the Olympic Games, but he will probably have to surpass his personal best to be eligible for a place on the podium.
Kyle Blignaut promised in May that he would compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games in the shot-put final, and it is going to happen.
The 21-year-old Tuks based athlete threw 20.97 metres in Wednesday afternoon’s heats. It was the eighth-best distance during the heats. The world-record holder, Ryan Crouser (USA) threw 22.05 metres.
Blignaut is only the second South African athlete to qualify for the shot-put final at the Olympics. Janus Robberts did so in 2000 in Sydney. He finished 7th.
Theoretically, there are going to be two South African competing in the final. Italy’s Zane Weir, who threw 21.25 metres on Wednesday, was born in South Africa. Earlier this season, he qualified for Tokyo Games, competing in Potchefstroom.
Blignaut, who is 1.95 metres tall and weighs 148kg, will be the youngest athlete in the final.
He played rugby for a while at school, but he realised that the tape measure is fairer when judging performances. That is why he chose to stick with athletics.
In 2018 he won gold at the World Junior Championships in Finland. This season he won gold at the South African Senior Championships and the South African Universities Championships. He also improved his best distance to 21.21 metres.
Only Robberts 21.97 metres and Orazio Cremona 21.1 metres ever threw further.
It won’t be a surprise if the Tuks athlete sets a new personal best during Thursday’s final.
“I am a very competitive person. It has to do with the way I grew up. As a family, we always had some sort of competition going. It has stood me in good stead. When I throw, it is always a 90% plus effort. I think it is essential to do so. You got to condition your body to be ready for when you need to step up,” he said during an interview shortly before the team’s departure to Tokyo.
Blignaut competed in five meetings in Europe and won three medals. His worst effort was 20.54 metres and his best 20.91 metres.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to compete against some of the best athletes in the world. Before, I used to only see them on television. But, now that I have competed with them in the same circle, I realise they are also only human. Like me, they have good days and bad days,” Blignaut remarked after Wednesday’s heat.
Men's shotput, qualifying: Kyle Blignaut, with a distance of 20.97m, qualified for the 12-man final in 8th place but Jason van Rooyen (20.29m) misses out in 19th place#TeamSA #Tokyo2020
— Team South Africa (@TeamSA2024) August 3, 2021
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