‘Elder stateman’ wins hurdles opener
LJ van Zyl showed at last weekend's Gauteng North Championships that he can still compete with the young men in the 400m hurdles.
An “elder statesman” won the 400-hurdles in the Gauteng-North Championships in 50.09s on Sunday.
LJ van Zyl from the Tuks high performance centre was the first to admit that his time was nothing to get excited about but he was satisfied for now.
There was still a long season ahead and it was important for him to peak when this really mattered.
“It was a hard championship. To race the 400-hurdles twice within hours is a tough ask. Normally during a championship you only race once a day. I won my heat in 50.03s in near perfect conditions, but the final was run in pouring rain which certainly did not make things easy. That is why I am happy with my result,” Van Zyl said.
Le Roux Hamman (Tuks) came second in 50.49s and Bernard Pretorius (Tuks) third in 51.31s.
Van Zyl, who turns 31 this year, can rightfully claim to be the “elder statesman” of South African 400-hurdles.
“It is nearly 15 years since I ran my first sub 49-seconds race and I am not getting any younger. Nowadays I race against athletes who are ten years younger, which is quite exciting because they help to keep me on my toes,” he said.
“I am very glad to see that there are youngsters who are ready to continue South Africa’s proud tradition in the 400-hurdles.”
Van Zyl has carried the South African flag in nearly 60 races.
He described the 400-hurdles as the great leveller in athletics.
“There is never a time when you can relax and say that you have truly mastered running the 400-hurdles. I will put money on it that any athlete who thinks so will be humbled the next time he races. You have to keep on putting in the long hard hours and even then there are no guarantees.”
– Gezelle Magerman, the Youth Olympic champion, won the under-20 400-hurdles race in 59.09s.
– Wenda Nel cruised to victory in the women’s 400 metre race in a time of 52.27s.
– Irvette van Zyl won the 5 000m in 16:17.69 and Orazio Cremona won the shotput with a distance of 19.31m.
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