Off the track sprinter Viwe Jingqi wants to break the stereotype of black women, especially in the Eastern Cape, being railroaded into early marriages and motherhood.
She’s also looking to shake off her tomboy image while aiming to step up her performances in the stadium.
It’s a lot for the BSc student at North-West University in Potchefstroom who turns 20 tomorrow. “When I went back home [at Engcobo] now and I saw a lot of girls; some of them are getting married and some are experiencing teenage pregnancy. Some are looking up to me and they’re drifting my way, but the majority is still in that kind of mental state …
“I think about changing it a lot. I feel like there needs to be a sports programme for this village or choirs or arts … and I feel like a lot of girls would escape a lot of things like getting married at any age and teenage pregnancy,” she said, adding she’s like to get actively involved.
”I can’t just be saying I want change and then not do the change or make change,” she said, adding that nutrition was a major challenge in poorer areas.
Jingqi said she became aware of the importance of eating and drinking properly only after arriving at the Tuks high school in Pretoria at the age of 14. “Every time I go home my nutrition is just all over the place.”
Jingqi arrived at our interview carrying a bunch of keys with decorative small pink pom-pom, part of her move to overhaul her own image to be more girlie girl. “I want to start looking a bit girly. A little of my style and the things I like are too dull. I want to lighten up with the pink.”
She wants to look less “tomboyish”. “I want to start dressing like a girl.”
That means more dresses and skirts, items she used to reserve for church only.
Jingqi is also using her faith to help restore the confidence she built up while a junior in 2022, when she clocked the joint-seventh fastest 100m time by a South African woman. This year, she’s hoping to achieve the 11.07 automatic qualifying time for the world championships in Tokyo in September, although the 10.98 South African record isn’t off the table either.
But she needs to rekindle her self-belief, knocked by a series of mishaps starting with a hamstring injury that ruled her out of the 2022 national senior championships. The next year she struggled after having her appendix removed.
Last year she went to the junior world championships in Peru — her third tilt at the age-group competition — looking for a medal, but she had to be satisfied with fifth place.
“There was a time where I was like ‘from here, how do you move on?’ or ‘how do you get motivation to want to push again’… When I didn’t get the medal it was ‘oh, okay, I guess it’s part of the sport’ but it’s a bit disappointing as well.”
Jingqi’s main goal for 2025 is to regain her confidence and attain a “mental stability”.
“I’m a very spiritual person … and I believe my confidence can only come from [God].”
She still feels like a junior heading into her first season as a senior. “When I start competing, that’s when I’m going to start feeling it.”
Jingqi draws motivation from inspiring youngsters. “When you see so many young girls looking up to you, and wanting to see you go forward, I think that is motivation more than pressure. It gives me this terrific feeling, like it scares me but motivation makes me want to push even more.”
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