Adriaan Wildschutt plans to compete with the best in 10,000m

Adriaan Wildschutt has planned his assault on the 10,000m race at the Paris Olympics with the same analytical precision he needed to obtain his MBA degree.

The US-based distance star has punched out four national records this year — first going 12min 56.76sec for the 5,000m indoor in January. Then he clocked 26:55.54 in the 10,000m in March, 12.56.67 in the outdoor 5,000m in May and 7:36.77 over 3,000m in June.

The key, he said, had been focusing on competing rather than going for times. “That’s why I’ve been running quite a bit faster in comparison to previous years.

“Now it’s about competing, it’s kind of throwing the times out of the window. But then also try and close really hard because for the last few weeks, I was very intentional about how I close my workouts, and we’ve done some really good speed work to try and mimic what a race like that could potentially bring.”

The 26-year-old, who grew up in Ceres, Western Cape, and used to be trained by Zola Budd, is up against some quick Ethiopians and Kenyans who have delivered faster times — but he believes he cannot be written off.

“I had a really good run in Oslo in the 5,000 and the 3,000 in Stockholm and I was able to close with those guys, in the 3,000 especially. And then the 5,000 went out very, very fast from the start, and I was able to maintain a really good pace and for that reason, I think I can compete.

“My goal is to be with everybody until the very end... I’ll definitely try my best to be up there with the lead pack, with hopefully 800, 600, 400 to go — 400 to go would be ideal because then I can really put myself in a position to compete.”

Wildschutt said he was achieving things now that a few years ago he thought were impossible. “I never thought I was going to run under 13min in the 5,000. I never thought I was going to run under 7:40 for 3,000. And I never ever thought that I would run under 27 [in the 10,000].

“When I was still coached by Zola, I used to think that when I run sub-28, I would have accomplished what I always wanted to because I thought it was such a crazy barrier to break, and I would be totally satisfied to stop running after I broke 28 minutes.”