Sinesipho Dambile predicted big things for next season after competing in his first World Athletics Championship final on Friday. The 23-year-old finished eighth in the 200m final in Tokyo in 20.23 seconds in a race won for the fourth time by American Noah Lyles in 19.52 seconds. By Karien Jonckheere
“I made a lot of mistakes in the final,” he said after struggling around the tight bend from lane 2. “But more than anything, I enjoyed the final. I enjoyed being in that field where it was just the top eight guys in the world in 200m and I’m looking forward to next season. It’s going to be a different Dambile going forward.”
The 200m national champion, who trains alongside fellow world champs finalist Gift Leotela and double world junior champion Bayanda Walaza, believes that with a bit more hard work, he can challenge the likes of Lyles.
“I want to be better now. These guys are just like us. I just have to work a little bit harder and make sure next time I’m on that podium. I feel that I have all the physical gifts to do that. Just one more off-season and then I’ll be there,” he said.
Earlier in the evening, Jo-Ané du Plessis’s opening throw of 61.38m in qualification was enough to see her through to the javelin final. The distance saw the Olympic silver medallist finishing 10th overall in qualifying, with only 12 athletes making it through.
“I feel like there’s work to do… and hopefully we can correct what we did wrong tonight,” she said afterwards.
With the qualification round and final just one day apart, Du Plessis reckoned it will be the best-conditioned athletes who will perform on Saturday evening. The 27-year-old has enjoyed plenty of consistency this season, finishing on the podium in all but two of her competitions.
“It definitely helped to get competition-ready because it’s going well in training but you have to be in charge of your emotions on the day on the field, so that’s what the competition is for – because if you’re relaxed you can do a lot of things with the javelin, but if you are a bit more stressed it’s a bit more difficult, so we’ll see.”
