Hurdlers keeping their vaartjies together

Hurdlers Zeney van der Walt and Gezelle Magerman, stars at age-group level, are bidding to make their marks in the senior ranks at last.

Van der Walt, 21, won the 400m hurdles titles at the world under-20 championship in 2018 and the world under-18 championships the year before that, while Magerman, 24, claimed gold in the same event at the Youth Olympic Games in 2014.

Van der Walt seemed destined for early greatness after setting a national under-20 55.05sec record while finishing second at the senior SA championships in 2018, but both she and Magerman hit prolonged quiet spells after hitting the senior ranks.

A casual glance at their performances doesn’t reflect how they’ve had to grit it out.

Athletics, like many other codes in this country, has a dearth of women at elite level; SA’s Olympic squad in Tokyo last year numbered 21 men in individual events compared to just five women.

There are many reasons for the disparity, but Van der Walt and Magerman agreed that one hurdle was the step-up from junior to senior, especially the transition from school to university.

“I came from a structured programme at school to being on my own [at university], totally alone,” said Magerman, who grew up in Darling in the Western Cape, went to boarding school in Paarl and then arrived in Pretoria to study sports psychology.

She added the gap was more pronounced without the under-23 strata between under-20 and senior.

Magerman, now doing retail business management, admitted she didn’t apply herself properly in training, taking shortcuts so she could experience life. “I used to kuier (socialise) every weekend.”

Van der Walt, in her final year of education, had similar experiences. “You can get more distracted [at university]. It’s up to you to stay focused and to keep your vaartjies (piggies) together.”

By 2018 Magerman was ready to quit, but Maritza Coetzee persuaded her to stick it out and took her under her wing. “She touched a lot of emotional points,” Magerman said. “It was challenging, but ja, she spoke the truth at the end of the day.”

Van der Walt, after the high of 2018, said she panicked at the enormity of her Diamond League debut in 2019, finishing last and then crashing again at a top meet in Marseille.

“It was so overwhelming and I actually ran in shock. When Coach asked me ‘what happened there? what happened at that hurdle?’ I’m like ‘I don’t know, I can’t remember’,” recalled Van der Walt, who missed out on the Games by a single world ranking point.

“Yes, there were a lot of ups and downs … [but] we’re back on track,” said Van der Walt, who has been with Coetzee for nine years.

With the African championships, world championships, World Student Games and Commonwealth Games coming up, there’s much to fight for.

Van der Walt wants to beat her 2018 time. “You must open [the season] with that time,” Coetzee said with a laugh. Her best would easily qualify her for the world championships.

And from next year Van der Walt would like to start targeting top international medals.

She might be engaged, but Van der Walt said there was no wedding on her immediate horizon. “Athletics is for me the most important and I really want to achieve.”

Magerman, buoyed by the 55.91 best she clocked last year, just wants to be the best she can be.

“They can push each other to become the top hurdlers in the world if they help each other,” said Coetzee. “Training together — sometimes it’s working for them, and sometimes not … They cannot race every training session.

“You must see which sessions to keep them together and which to keep them apart. If they can do what they do on the track at training, they must do well.”