Local athletics star, Kyle Blignaut, performed exceptionally well at the young age of 21 by finishing sixth in the shot-put final at the Tokyo Olympics.

He landed a best throw of 21.00m (a distance that would have seen him won bronze in the 2004 Olympic Final) to finish in the best position ever for a South African Olympic shotput athlete.

To put Blignaut’s performance into perspective, it must be remembered that in terms of this technically complex sport he is actually still a baby and that this Olympics was his first major competition among the senior men.

The winner of the gold medal, Ryan Crouser, from America, is 28 years old and Tokyo was his second Olympic Games. He has also gained experience at several junior and senior world championships, as well as continental championships, where there is a lot of stiff opposition in this item.

Joe Kovacs, the American who won silver, is even more experienced. He also won his second medal at an Olympic Games in Tokyo, while he was also on the podium three times at senior world championships.

The bronze medallist, 29-year-old Kiwi Tomas Walsh, also won his second Olympic medal. He also boasts two world championship medals and two indoor world championship medals.  He competed in his first indoor world championship when Blignaut was still in primary school.

Blignaut has admitted he is already looking forward to next year’s World Championships in Oregon, USA.

This is followed by the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (England), also in 2022. Looking at the end result of the shot-put at the Tokyo’s Olympics, it is only Welsh from New Zealand who finished above Blignaut who will also be in action in Birmingham. So, a Commonwealth medal is a very realistic dream.

There can be no doubt that a rosy athletics career lies ahead for the young Tuks athlete. By the time the big men compete in Paris at the next Olympic Games in 2024, he may just be one of the favourites to finish on the podium with the best of the best.

* Meanwhile, the South African men’s 4x100m relay team, with two local Tuks athletes in their ranks, failed miserably in the elimination round at the Games.

After Gift Leotlela was injured in the 100m heats, changes had to be made to the team that recently won gold at the World Relay Championships.

The team apparently could not practice much together and the result was a misunderstanding between Clarence Munyai and Shaun Maswanganyi during the very first changeover, which caused the baton to end up on the ground.

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