‘We must not get ahead of ourselves’: SA relay coach Paul Gorries

Though he was delighted with the national squad’s results at the World Athletics Relays over the weekend, SA relay coach Paul Gorries has cautioned that South Africa’s sprinters will need to take another step up if they want to repeat their performances at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo later this year.

In Guangzhou on Sunday, the SA men’s 4x100m and 4x00m teams won gold medals, with the 4x400m squad setting a national record of 2:57.50.

And the women’s 4x400m team earned bronze, also setting a national record of 3:24.84, while the mixed 4x400m quartet finished fifth in their final.

In the process, all four teams qualified for the World Athletics Championships to be held in Tokyo in September.

“I think the performances were exceptional. The first goal we set was for all four teams to qualify for the World Championships, which happened,” said Gorries, who earned 4x400m medals at the World Cup, the African Championships and the Commonwealth Games during his career as a sprinter.

Early in the international season

However, with southern hemisphere nations having already completed their domestic seasons, Gorries warned that northern hemisphere countries would peak only later this year and South Africa’s relay squads needed to be on top of their game at the global championships in the Japanese capital.

“Going into Tokyo I think it will be a completely different ball game. America didn’t bring in all their athletes (for the World Relays) but they will have full-strength teams (in Tokyo),” Gorries said.

“The one good thing going for us is that we’ve built momentum, and we need to keep that going.

“It’s a good start, but we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves. We need to remain focused on the job at hand, which is Tokyo, because we’re coming off the South African season so a lot of our athletes are sharper, but for other athletes overseas it’s really just the start of their season.

“That said, I do think in the men’s 4x100m and 4x400m events in particular we have the athletes who can compete. The 4x400m women have also stepped up, so things are looking good for Tokyo.”

The SA team will return home on Wednesday from the World Athletics Relays championship.