Old-timers have been swept up in the wave of optimism over South Africa’s successes at World Relays last weekend, wishing the global track team competition had been around in their day.
But it’s the potential of the national relay teams for the future that really stands out for the likes of LJ van Zyl and Arnaud Malherbe, both 4x400m world championship medallists from years gone by.
“The nice thing is, if you look at the ages of the athletes, they’re still youngsters,” said Van Zyl, a lecturer at the University of Pretoria, who is wrapping up his PhD thesis.
“If you build this team we’re going to have finalists — there’s no guarantee for medals — for the next two Olympics in 2028 and 2032, and obviously in Tokyo later this year.”
South Africa topped the medals at World Relays in Guangzhou, China, last weekend, with the men’s 4x100m and 4x400m teams winning gold, the women’s 4x400m taking bronze and the mixed 4x400m outfit qualifying for the world championships in Japan in September.
It was a crowning moment for Paul Gorries, the national relay coach, which happens to be an unpaid position.
Gorries started the relay journey at the 2015 world championships in Beijing where the baton failed to reach the second-leg athlete. But he saw the potential. “It was about a vision, and it was about something that I knew could happen,” said Gorries, who along with Akani Simbine are the sole survivors from a decade ago.
Gorries’s tenure has ended, and although he said he was available to continue, that decision will be made by the new Athletics South Africa (ASA) board to be voted in on May 31.
Will Gorries stay on? Will a good coach be appointed in his place?
Nobody knows yet.
Another administrative detail that needs to be ironed out is the renewal of the Bidvest sponsorship, which has provided the cash for the Operation Excellence programme that has funded the relay programme for the past couple of years.
The multi-million rand deal with the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), which handles OpEx, is due to end in mid-2026.
Then come the athletes and coaches who need to buy into the relay concept.
Relay culture in South Africa has grown considerably, but it’s still not at the point where the rule is “I after We”. Dutch star Femke Bol runs her heart out in the mixed 4x400m relay, which is at the start of the world championships and Olympics, before her individual event followed by the women’s relay at the end.
While the women won a World Relays medal, a full-strength mixed team could be the stronger medal contender in Japan in four months’ time. But, equally, one wouldn’t want to jeopardise a possible men’s medal at the end of the competition either.
Calculating the odds and juggling the 4x400m athletes to maximise the haul will be a critical skill facing the national relay coach.
The 4x100m, which has great depth with back-ups like Gift Leotlela, Benji Richardson and Shaun Maswanganyi (when he rediscovers his form), was the only SA team to produce a time in China good enough for a Paris Olympic medal.
The men’s 4x400m was 1.67sec off and the women more than five seconds adrift. A full-strength mixed 4x400m team would sit within a second of a bronze.
Malherbe, whose 4x400m world championship bronze from 1999 was awarded some 10 years after the fact, following a doping disqualification, estimates the lack of interest in the team race by some athletes and management might have cost him a further six or so medals.
“It came from the top. The guys were just like ‘oh, [the relay] is just an add-on’. ASA were always reluctant to send six guys for a relay team because it costs money. But, in my opinion, the benefits far outweigh the costs because … team sports are popular.”
He pointed out that for most athletes, relays were their best chances of winning medals at the Olympics and world championships.
The statistics back him up.
A total of 35 athletes have won relay medals across the Olympics, world championships and more recently World Relays, of whom only three have won individual silverware. Just 31 athletes have won individual Olympic and world championship gongs since 1908.
Some of the top athletes have bought into the relays. Simbine has been a massive driver of the relay since the early days and, according to Gorries, if it wasn’t for Simbine’s enthusiasm, there probably wouldn’t have been a relay medal in Paris last year.
But others are thinking the same way. Zeney Geldenhuys is facing three events in Tokyo — the mixed 4x400m, potentially three rounds of the 400m hurdles and the women’s 4x400m. “I think I will definitely be able to manage all of those 400 races. We have seen a lot of overseas athletes manage seven 400m in a period of a week, a week and a half. Yes, I think I will be able to do that.”
Zakithi Nene, whose 43.64 split in the final broke Malherbe’s 25-year-old 43.78 record for fastest South African relay leg, is being touted as an individual 400m medal contender in Japan, but he is happy to prioritise the relays.
“I’ve always believed that I have a better chance of medalling at a major championship with the relay than I do in my own individual events. So if I need to go ahead and sacrifice my event by running one mixed relay leg, I’ll definitely do that.”
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