Tough challenge awaits Nel in Doha
Wenda Nel will have to run a time close to her personal best this weekend in Doha if she wants to stand a chance to win a medal in the first Diamond League meeting of the European season.
Wenda Nel (Tuks/HPC), the South African 400-hurdles champion, will be in for a tough challenge when she settles into her starting blocks for the first Diamond League Meeting in Doha this weekend.
Five of the athletes who contested last year’s World Championships final in Beijing will be competing. The finalists include the two-time world champion, Zuzana Hejnova (Czech Republic), as well as Cassandra Tate (USA) who was third in Beijing.
Six of the athletes competing in Doha have run times faster than Nel’s personal best of 54.37s.
In spite of this Nel is far from being disconsolate. She is in fact looking forward to the challenge.
“It is the beginning of a new international season and Doha will give me a good indication of whether my preparation for the Olympic Games in Rio is on track. It is certainly going to be an interesting race. For many of the athletes it will be their first outing over the hurdles while it will be only my second 400-hurdles race of the season,” said Nel who was 7th in the World Championships final.
As has become the norm before a major race, Nel (Tuks/HPC) is not prepared to commit to any time before her race.
“Naturally I would like to run a good time and I can honestly say that physically I am feeling up to doing so, but I have learned over the past few years that racing can be very unpredictable and it is, therefore, best not to become obsessed with times. But I have a goal in mind that would make me happy on Friday,” said Nel who won her 6th South African title in Stellenbosch in April in a time of 54.82s.
“I was happy with my performance at the national championships. After analysing my race with my coach, Irma Reyneke, we realized that I perhaps started out a bit too slow over the first 200 metres. Going over the last two hurdles I could feel that I still had a lot left in my legs. We still have to find a balance between starting too slow or fading towards the end due to having started out too fast.”
Nel’s progress as an international 400-hurdles athlete over the past seven years is impressive. In 2010 her best time was 56.96s, which ranked her 85th on the IAAF list for best performances of the year. Her best time of 54.37s last year meant that she was ranked 10th on the IAAF list for the year.
