Tuks’ Olympic hopefuls allowed to resume training
Most of these athletes tried to keep fit by sprinting up and down streets.
Tuks’ athletes are at long last able to do what they love, which is to jump, hurdle, sprint, or throw on a synthetic track again.
It had been nearly four months since they were last able to do so due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
Most of these athletes tried to keep fit by sprinting up and down streets. It turned out to be a quite jarring experience for some as track and field athletes are not supposed to be running on tar roads.
Clarence Munyai (South African 200m record-holder), Rikenette Steenkamp (South African 100m-hurdles record-holder), and the “old man” of South African athletics Ruan de Vries were the first three last week, to sprint down the Tuks track.
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For Munyai, it was fun. He hopes it might be the start of the return to what is perceived to be normality.
He is, however, hesitant to get his hopes up about competing internationally. For now, he is taking it one day at a time appreciating the joy of sprinting.
De Vries, who turned 34 in February, is possibly one of South Africa’s oldest active track and field athletes. This season was the 17th year that he would be competing as a senior in the 110m-hurdles. Last year, the Tuks hurdler got to complete his “hat trick” by competing at the World Championships in Doha. He has also done so as a youth and junior athlete.
“There is this ‘little voice’ that tells me I should not quit. I still got to race that one perfect race. For me, perfect does not necessarily equate to fast times. It is about the flawless execution of my technique.”
“Last year for the first time, I ran four races without once touching a hurdle. I ended up running the two fastest times of my career – 13:42 and 13:45. Who knows what I am capable of the next time my execution is without fault? Unfortunately, the wind from behind was 0.1m/s too fast when running 13:42,” he said.
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The Tuks hurdler’s time of 13:45, however, ranks him as one of the fourth fastest 110m-hurdlers in the history of South African athletics. Only Antonio Alkana (13:11 in 2017), Lehann Fourie (13:24s in 2012), and Shaun Bownes (13:26 in 2002) were quicker.
Seventeen years is a long time to be hurdling but not for De Vries.
“I might not have made money from running, but I have no regrets. I have been privileged to go to more than 40 countries. In doing so, I gained invaluable life experience. You can’t buy that.”
One of the few things missing from his CV is getting to compete at the Olympic Games.
De Vries knows it is going to be tough to qualify, but he owes it to himself to give it go. He does not see 34 years as a handicap. It is only two numbers in his ID.
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