Tuks sprinter could make athletics history on Saturday
All eyes at the Gauteng North Athletics Championship this weekend will be on Emil Erasmus, who may become only the sixth South African to run the 100m in less than 10 seconds.
The performance of Emile Erasmus from Tuks in the 100 metres on Saturday during the Gauteng North Championship, which will be held at the University of Pretoria, is undoubtedly going to be worth watching.
Last year in July during the La Chaux-de-Fonds Meeting in Switzerland he ran a time of 10.01s, proving that he could be South Africa’s next sub ten seconds sprinter. Only five local sprinters have been able to do so.
However, Erasmus is a realist.
“I know I am capable of dipping under 10 seconds. Whether it is going to be on Saturday remains to be seen. I have been clocking some fast times during training, but that does not mean anything as it is one thing to train and something else to race,” he said on a philosophical note.
According to Erasmus the biggest mistake he can make is to be obsessed with running sub ten seconds.
“Through experience, I have learned that if you settle in the starting blocks thinking about running a specific time, it is guaranteed that you would end up running one of your slowest races as you tend to tense up.
Erasmus said he and his coach, Frans van Rooyen, never talk about times.
“The only thing that matters is that I get to execute my technique to perfection and that I keep on working to become faster and stronger. If I do, fast times will happen. This weekend will be the first time I am racing this season. I am also competing in the 200 metres which are on Friday,” said the Tuks sprinter.
Erasmus admits even being so close to running a sub ten seconds race is no guarantee that he will be doing so this year. To improve by 0.02 seconds is a more significant challenge than people might realise.
In 2014 another Tuks athlete, Akani Simbine, clocked a time of 10.02s. However, from that day it took him more than a year before he notched up his first sub-ten second time in the 100 metres.
Carina Horn’s progress as sprinter is another example of being so close yet so far. In 2016 she ran 11.06s. All indications were that it would be a mere formality for her to dip under 11 seconds, but it took three years of blood sweat and tears for her to improve by 0.08s. Last year in Doha she became the first South African female sprinter to run a sub 11 seconds race clocking a time of 10.98s.
The statistics certainly favour Erasmus. Since 2015 he has consistently been improving his times. In 2015 his best time was 10.43s; in 2016 he ran 10.21s, in 2017 his time was 10.08s and last year he ran 10.01s.
According to the Tuks sprinter, the one thing he has been working on is to maintain his top end speed over the last 30 metres.
“My start is not too bad. Apart from the first two or so steps I am also quite strong in the driving phase being able to stay with the best. Unfortunately, I tend to lose speed towards the end of the race. My coach realised that we could rectify this by doing longer high-intensity workouts. It is why I am going to compete more often in 200m races. Doing so will help to improve my endurance,” Erasmus concluded.
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