Double sprint king Bayanda Walaza and 400m champion Udeme Okon lifted South Africa to an under-20 world championships first in Lima this week, making the nation the first to capture all three of the men’s sprint gold medals.
Throw in Bradley Nkoana’s 100m bronze, and South Africa captured four of the nine men’s sprint medals.
The North-West University student and matric pupil Walaza clearly benefited from their Olympic experience in Paris, where they helped Akani Simbine and Shaun Maswanganyi to the 4x100m silver last month.
Walaza, 18, became the first South African to win the 100m crown in this age-group competition, and only the second in the 200m after national relay coach Paul Gorries, part of the squad in Peru.
Grade 11 pupil Okon kept the 400m title in South African hands following Lythe Pillay’s victory at the last championship in Cali two years ago.
South African relays need even more investment.
The arrival of Okon keeps the dream of the men’s 4x400m alive, while the performances of Walaza and Nkoana suggest South Africa can remain a powerhouse in the 4x100m for years to come.
Walaza was a late addition to the squad after finishing second in the 100m at the national championships in Pietermaritzburg in April, and he came of age helping the team qualify for Paris at World Relays in Bahamas in May.
Under-20 relay teams should be part of the broader relay system.
As bright as the future seems, expectations also need to be tempered; success at junior level is no guarantee of senior success.
Going into Lima, South Africa had won 55 U20 medals since 1992, of which only nine (16.3%) had converted into Olympic or senior world championship gongs.
Of the country’s 22 U20 gold medallists, five (22.7%) went on to reach major podiums as seniors — discus-thrower Frantz Kruger, javelin-thrower Marius Corbett, high-jumper Jacques Freitag, 400m hurdler LJ van Zyl and long-jumper Luvo Manyonga.
Of the 33 silver and bronze U20 medallists, only four (12%) transitioned to senior podiums — pole-vaulter Okkert Brits, 400m hurdler Llewellyn Herbert, long-jumper Khotso Mokoena and 26-year-old Paris heroine Jo-Ane van Dyk, who largely did it without official support.
Of the 55 U20 medal-winners — Lima had pushed the total to 60 before last night — only three (5.4%) had won both Olympic and world championship medals — Manyonga, Herbert and Mokoena.
The flip side is that of South Africa’s 27 senior world championship medals, nine (33.3%) came from U20 medallists. Of the 16 Olympic medals since readmission, six (31.2%) enjoyed junior success.
The numbers suggest that South Africa needs to invest more into age-group sport to improve the chances of senior glory.
One also has to wonder how resources are being spread between different disciplines. Before last night javelin (men’s and women’s) topped the overall U20 medal haul with nine gongs, followed by the 200m with eight and then discus, 400m hurdles and shot put on six each. A total of five medals had been earned in the 100m.
South Africa must invest in Walaza and other Lima medallist as much as it needs to support those preparing for the 2026 U20 showpiece.
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