Author: Modern Athlete

One of my most vivid childhood memories takes me back to 1976(age 9)
when Mom had placed me on the side of the Comrades road, water bottle in hand,
waiting to give it to Dad when he came past. Well, we messed up the handover
and I remember sprinting down the road after my Dad to give him his bottle. He
was running at a furious pace and needless to say, I never even got close to
getting the water bottle to him. I was picked up by Mom, dropped a couple of
kays down the road and managed a successful handover the second time around.
That was the year my Dad placed 89th at Comrades in 6:58:00, an unbelievable
achievement that my brothers and I can only marvel at now that we have
completed ‘The Big C’. For the record, we are four brothers, three of whom
completed the 2012 Comrades.

 

An even earlier memory takes me back to 1973.
The overnight train from Durban to Germiston was late and as I was very wary of
my grade 1 teacher, I made my Dad (who had run Comrades the day before) walk me
all the way to my classroom. I clearly remember taking an extraordinarily long
time to make our way from the bottom parking lot, over the sports fields, up
some steep steps and to my classroom. I have always wondered how long it took
him to get back to the car… especially now that I have my own experience of
recovering from the ‘Down’ Comrades, and the resultant very stiff legs the next
morning.

 

Throughout my 20s and 30s I watched the Comrades Marathon on TV, and in
1997 I happened to be in Durban on Comrades day and was privileged to witness
the victories of Charl Mattheus and Ann Trason. Every year I promised myself
that next year would be the year that I entered it, and over the years I have
handed over quite a few cases of beer to settle pub bets resulting from my
continued absence from the start line.

 

THE FIRST GO

In January 2008, aged 40, I joined Bedfordview Country Club and even on
that very first walk/run that I participated in, I already knew that Comrades
was the big hairy goal that I wanted to achieve. And so on 30 May 2010, I found
myself on the starting line in Pietermaritzburg. It really is an incredible
feeling being in the starting pens for one’s first Comrades, knowing that you
are going to be participating in a uniquely South African experience. The
actual morning was freezing cold, the atmosphere before the start was palatable
and the almost eight-minute wait to cross the start after Shosholoza, the National Anthem, Chariots of Fire, the cockcrow and the starter’s gun was totally
nerve-wracking.

 

For the first time while running, I experienced cramps in my legs, which
brought me to a near standstill within the first 20km. I made the Drummond halfway
cut-off with one-and-a-half minutes to spare, and then made the next cut-off
point (Winston Park), some 14km later with around two minutes in hand, but with
the continued cramping in my legs I eventually had to leave the course, having
completed 62km. That was the furthers distance that I had ever run. By that
stage I had no chance of making the next cut-off and decided that I would like
to see my brother Kevin finish, who was also running his first Comrades.

 

Despite not finishing, some of the highlights of my 2010 Comrades day
were:

?              
My brother Bruce
running about 7km with me, in his slops, from the top of Botha’s Hill to
Winston Park, and taking the infamous photographs of me running in stone last
position with my very own entourage of Comrades vehicles right on my tail.

?              
Being at the finish
to witness Kevin finish his first Comrades and to see and feel the real
disappointment for me at not having finished my first.

?              
Winning the Bailer of
the Year Award at the club prize-giving – thanks mainly to above-mentioned photo
shoot – and the genuine warm wishes of club members to tackle Comrades the following
year.

 

IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED…

A year later, on 29 May 2011, I stood at the start in Durban better
trained, weighing less, and wondering if the ‘Up Run’ would bring me better
fortune and a first Comrades medal. I ran well in the first half, going through
Drummond in 5:34, leaving myself 6:26 to get inside the 12-hour cut-off, but my
second half did not start well, with the beast of Inchanga taking a big toll on
my energy. Bruce was now doing his first Comrades and I met up with him three quarters
of the way up Inchanga. We were glued together for the rest of the way to
Pietermaritzburg, but we were always running against the clock and we both dug
very deeply to keep moving forward.

 

It was very disheartening when the 12-hour bus went past us with about
15km still to go. Even with the best will in the world, we just did not have
the ability at that time to keep the 12-hour bus in our sights. Somehow we made
it to the top of Polly Shorts, but we had a big task to get to the finish
before the dreaded gunshot would signal the end. My watch had long since died
and my ability to process anything mathematical was just about non-existent, so
Bruce and I just resorted to a sprint/walk strategy to get to the finish.

 

We eventually got to the stadium, with Bruce just ahead of me. The atmosphere
was electric and the announcer was busy with the 10-second countdown as I
turned the final corner, so the finish line was in sight when the gun was fired
– I saw my brother finish in 11:59:50 and I was less than 100m short! I just came
to a total standstill on the field; I was more physically shattered than
disappointed. I eventually made my way over the timing mats at the finish line
and into the arms of Bruce and Kevin, who had hurdled the fence at the finish
to get to us, having finished earlier in 10:28:28. I was later told by many of
my club mates that there wasn’t a dry eye in the Bedfordview Country Club
gazebo after they had just witnessed the agony of my near-finish. I was treated
for dehydration in the medical tent and vowed that very same night that I would
be back at Comrades 2012.

 

THIRD TIME LUCKY

And so I found myself on the starting line in Pietermaritzburg once
again on 3 June 2012, praying that it was going to be third time lucky. I
really felt the pressure as many well-wishers told me that this was going to be
my year. Overall, I had a really fantastic race, despite some minor leg cramps.
I ran the entire way with Bedfordview Country Club members, I had tons of support
along the way and I was thrilled to bits when I got into the stadium and over
the line in 11:11. I thought I would break down at the finish, but in truth,
even though there were tears, my biggest feeling was an enormous sense of relief that I had finally finished Comrades. For the third year in a row, I
met my brother Kevin on the finish line and this time we were able to have a
hug of victory!

 

I was again treated for dehydration. My
medical treatment was an epic experience in itself, with me falling off the
stretcher on the way to the medical tent, then being put on a stretcher bed
whose leg collapsed, spilling me onto the ground for a second time, but I was
treated by a fantastic young doctor who was spending her birthday treating
fatigued Comrades runners.

 

NOW FOR NUMBER FOUR

Comrades 2012 was the culmination of not just getting the Comrades
monkey off my back, but rather, as one of my running mates put it, the hairy Comrades
gorilla! And this year my Bailer of the Year Award was replaced with the
Perseverance Trophy in recognition of my journey. Will I be back in 2013 to run
Comrades again? Absolutely! Maybe one day the four brothers will start a Comrades
together (come on, Trevor!). And to those mates – you know who you are – it is
now time for that Johnnie Walker Blue.

David Barnard was one of those runners who fell out of
love with the sport after a few years on the tar, but then the CEO of SANGONeT (Southern African NGO Network) discovered
multi-stage desert races, and rediscovered his love of running. “In the early 2000’s, I ran road races,
did Comrades, and it was all the same,” he says. “I had lost running for four
years, but at the end of 2009 I heard of the Kalahari Augrabies Extreme
Marathon and started up again.” He decided to run it in 2010 under the SANGONeT
‘No Pain No Gain’ campaign banner, to raise funds and awareness for NGOs, but
first he had to not only get running fit again, but also get used to running with
a heavy backpack filled with clothing, food and water, and in sand and high
temperatures. “You learn from your first time and you learn the tricks of the
trade,” he says.

 

Since that first desert
run, David has gone on to run several deserts around the world, and says his
running has brought him a sense of personal achievement. “Desert races bring a
new outlook to running. Some people think I’m crazy taking on these five to
six-day multistage races, but it’s great because there are no egos at events
like these. It’s about the experience, and people often do it for a cause.” All
the funds David raises through his running go towards helping SANGONeT provide
other NGOs in the country with services, advice and technologies. “It’s a hard
sector to get into – awareness is important and throughout my desert races we
profile a NGO daily to get the word out.”

 

RELENTLESS SAHARA

In 2011, David went to run
in Egypt, and despite being better prepared, he fought both dehydration and
fatigue “I came back better trained for Sahara, but it took its toll on me. The
heat was really difficult and it drove me crazy. All you want is water. You
can’t sit down because it’s hot. You can’t stand still because of the heat
radiating above.”

 

Every 8km, heaven-sent
water points would hand out one-litre water bottles, and roving Land Rovers moved
amongst the runners to fill up water bottles as well, but David says there was no
choice but to keep running. “The sooner you finish your stage, the more time
you have to recover. I learnt to manage that well. But you also have to hold
yourself back, because usually on the final day, the route can be Comrades
distance!”

 

GOING STILL BIGGER

Having raised
R100 000 in each of his first two runs, David felt the campaign needed a
bigger and better challenge in 2012. “We had to expand the campaign – three
deserts on three continents, and reach R1 million in fundraising” he says. That
has seen him complete the Namib Desert Challenge in March and the Gobi March in
China in June, and now Antarctica in November is the last challenge for the
year. “It will be a challenge in the cold. When the Highveld had the recent bit
of snow, people asked me if I was running and I said ‘No, it’s too cold!’ Now
I’ll have to expect those conditions.”

 

David’s training
philosophy is simple: Run every day. “You have to get used to running at least
six days a week. I try and get up to 130km a week, work on core training in the
gym for the tough terrain and do weight-training for my quads so that when I
race with my 7kg backpack, I’ll be prepared.” However, David knows that all he
does during the events is vasbyt.
“You get blisters, and sometimes there is no shade, like in the Sahara, but I
know that I must just keep going. It’s my motivation! To think I link my day
job with running is a bonus.”

For more info on the
‘No Pain, No Gain’ campaign or to make a donation, go to www.ngopulse.org/npng or www.facebook.com/Sangonet.NoPainNoGain.

She was 50,
between jobs, feeling down, and weighing more than ever. And her family had
started calling her Madame Dough due to her love of pastries. Sarah Jane
Horscroft knew it was time to make a plan. Then she received the Modern Athlete newsletter and read about
the Dare To Tri Challenge, calling for novice triathletes to apply for a slot
on the magazine’s Ironman 70.3 training squad. She had wanted to compete in
triathlons since her student days, so she entered, even though she didn’t
expect to make the squad.

 

When she discovered
that she had been selected, alongside 10 other novices, she admits she actually
had to go Google the Ironman. “I was not quite sure what I had set myself up
for, and was terribly shocked when I saw the distances involved, but to my relief,
I put two and two together and realised it was only a Half Ironman I was signed
up for!”

 

TRAINING TIME

And so Sarah
began following Dare to Tri Coach Derick Marcisz’s training programme, joining
group training sessions and attending the Dare to Tri Workshops, but being a
full-time wife and mother made it difficult to fit in training for all three
disciplines. In the end, she would ‘steal’ time, such as going for a run when
she had dropped off one of her daughters at an extramural activity, and she did
most of her training at 5am while juggling her family duties. “The hardest part
of doing Ironman 70.3, or any other triathlon, is finding the time to train,”
she says.

 

Sarah had
always been an avid runner, but she hadn’t swum since school and wasn’t too
keen on cycling, having never ridden in cleats before. It took her about eight
weeks to get the hang of them, which she did by cycling with her husband each
Sunday. The swimming side of things took off faster than she had expected,
though, largely helped by the Total Immersion course the squad did. “That
helped me gain confidence and taught me to swim faster with less effort, but my
first open water swim made me feel disorientated, which left me concerned for
the first leg of 70.3.”

 

THE BIG DAY

The day
before the race in Buffalo City (East London), the group went for an easy cycle,
but Sarah Jane developed a pounding headache and turned back. “I spent the rest
of the day in bed, took every vitamin tablet known to man, and slept all day
trying to recover. When I opened my eyes the next day, I felt strong and
prepared for what lay before me.” Fortunately race day produced perfect racing
weather, and she came out of the sea in 43:56, feeling exhilarated instead of
tired. However, she was scared of the bike leg, as she felt that she would only
just manage to beat the cut-off time. “I just prayed constantly that I wouldn’t
be one of the many athletes standing next to the road with a punctured tyre!”
she says.

 

“As I rode,
I kept the route map in mind and waited for that one massive hill to come. Then
to my surprise, I reached the end of the bike leg in 3:43 and could not believe
that the massive hill in my mind had never arrived.” That set her up
brilliantly for the run, and though the last 5km were especially hard, the
music was pumping and the supporters were cheering, which helped her come home
with a superb run time of 2:07 and a sub-7 finish time.

 

BIGGER AND BETTER

Since
then, Sarah Jane has completed a number of triathlon events, building on her
Dare to Tri training, and that saw her recently selected in her age category to
represent SA at the World Triathlon Champs in New Zealand in October. “The Dare
to Tri experience and completing Ironman 70.3 really has changed my life – you realise
what you are capable of. My family still can’t believe that I went from ‘Madame
Dough’ to international triathlete in a year!”

South Africa’s Paralympic athletes did
the nation proud in London 2012, securing 29 medals, consisting of eight gold
medals, 12 silver and nine bronze, and finishing 17^th on the medals
table. Of these, four gold, seven silver and six bronze medals came from the
track and field athletes, who really cemented SA’s position as one of the
leading Paralympic athletic powerhouses. The rest of the country’s medals came
in the pool, with Natalie Du Toit leading the charge with three gold and one
silver, while Ernst van Dyk also claimed silver in the men’s H4 hand-cycling
road race.

 

One of the highlights of the Games was
the men’s 4x100m relay gold, where the South African quartet of Samkelo Radebe, Zivan Smith, Arnu Fourie and Oscar Pistorius raced to a
new world record of 41.78 seconds. They led from start to finish to lead the
Brazilian and American teams home, but the latter two teams were both
subsequently disqualified to see China and Germany promoted to the podium.
After the race, Samkelo said, “My job was to make sure I got to Zivan first and
I smacked him very, very hard to get him going for the second leg!” Zivan added
that “I just went on my gut instinct and started running early and then I heard
the loud ‘YES’ behind me and there he was.” Arnu was next up: “I was so hyped
up I just wanted to go. Then I saw the Americans stumble or have some problem
next to me and I just went. When I handed over to Oscar, I saw we had a four to
five-metre gap and knew we had it. I think I must have run a full 200m
following Oscar to the line.”

 

Having already become the first
Paralympic athlete to compete in the able-bodied Olympics a few weeks prior, Oscar
rounded off a remarkable season with the relay gold plus gold in the T44 400m
and silver in the T44 200m. He was also fourth in the T44 100m. The 400m was
the final event on the programme allowed Oscar to sign off in winning style. “It
was a blessing for me that I could finish off the whole summer here in London
2012 with the last race in this stadium. I wanted to give the crowd my best, and
I could actually hear them coming into the home straight. Usually I’m so
focussed and in my zone, but I could hear them and it was the most amazing
feeling that I could possibly have.”

 

Another golden moment came in the
men’s T37 100m final when Fanie van der Merwe dived across the line to ensure his
gold medal and also set a new world record of 11.51, having already improved
the record to 11.52 in his qualifying heat. He finished tied on time with
China’s Yongin Liang, but the finishline photo showed the South African’s chest
narrowly cross the line first. “I knew a normal dip wasn’t going to do it so I
thought I’d give it a dive,” said Fanie. “I cut my hands, elbows and knees in the
dive, but I would do it again if necessary.”

 

The
country’s fourth track gold came in the women’s F13 long jump, where Ilse Hayes won the
competition with a leap of 5.70 metres to defend the title she won in Beijing
four years ago, despite a heavily bandaged left thigh . She also won silver in
the F13 100m. “I tore it while we were in Germany at the end of July and it
hurt more during the long jump because that’s my jumping leg, so I’m very happy
with my results because my preparation could have been better.”

 

Two debutants who announced their
arrival at the Paralympics in style were Anrune Liebenberg and Dyan Buis.
Anrune took silver in the women’s T46 400m and bronze in the T46 200m, while Dyan
claimed silver in both the men’s T38 100m and 200m, then added bronze in
the T37-38 long jump, with a world record jump for his class. Both are now
looking forward to Rio 2016 and adding to their medal tally.

 

SA’S LONDON 2012 PARALYMPIC TRACK & FIELD MEDALS

GOLD

Fanie van der Merwe            Men’s 100m T37

Oscar Pistorius                   Men’s 400m T44

Ilse Hayes                           Women’s long jump F13

Samkelo Radebe, Zivan
Smith, Arnu Fourie, Oscar Pistorius        4x100m Relay T42-46

SILVER

Tebogo Mokgalagadi           Men’s 100m T35

Dyan Buis                           Men’s 100m T38

Ilse Hayes                           Women’s 100m T13

Dyan Buis                           Men’s 200m T38

Oscar Pistorius                   Men’s 200m T44

Hilton Langenhoven             Men’s 400m T12

Anrune Liebenberg              Women’s 400m T46

BRONZE

Jonathan Ntutu                    Men’s 100m T13

Arnu Fourie                         Men’s 100m T44

Anrune Liebenberg              Women’s 200m T46

Union Sekailwe                    Men’s 400m T38

Dyan Buis                           Men’s long jump
F37-38

Michael Louwrens                Men’s shot put F57-58

There’s an old saying that when the going gets tough,
the tough get going. In fact, they even wrote a song about it. And when it
comes to running up mountains, that saying really hits home, because mountain
trails have a way of finding a runner’s weakness and mercilessly beating the
runner up with it. Unless you’re Andre Calitz, that is. Then you just get
stronger and faster as the trail gets steeper and tougher – which is why he has
been setting course records left, right and centre in some of the country’s
toughest trail races in the last 12 months.

 

Also known as AJ or the ‘Ginger Ninja’ in trail
running circles, the 29-year-old won the 60km Three Peaks Challenge, taking
16 minutes off the previous record, and the Muizenberg Trail in another course
record time. He then blitzed course records on both days of the two-day
Grootvadersbosch Trail Run, and became the first runner to ascend Table
Mountain’s Platteklip Gorge 11 times between sunrise and sunset in the K-Way
Platteklip Charity Challenge. And most recently, he became the first runner to
break seven hours for the 80km Hi-Tec Peninsula Ultra Fun Run, or Puffer, from Cape Point to the
V&A Waterfront, despite terrible weather conditions that saw only the top
three runners go over the top of Table Mountain before all other runners were
re-routed along the contour path to bypass the foul weather. And also despite
the fact that Andre didn’t really know the best route to take…

 

TOUGHER THAN PUFFER

“As a Puffer novice, I
didn’t know the route well, so I had to stick with the front runners. The
course is unmarked and there are numerous technical sections and short cuts and
specific checkpoints that I didn’t have a clue about,” says Andre. “Luckily Nic
De Beer and Will Robinson are both former winners and have a wealth of
experience between them.” Still, Andre broke clear at Constantia Nek, 60km into
the race, backing himself on the climb to Maclear’s Beacon, the highest point
on Table Mountain. “I was feeling really strong, so decided to make it count on
the climbs, which are my strong point. The weather was having a proper go at us
with heavy downpours and freezing wind! It was also very slippery, with low
visibility, which made things difficult.”

 

By the time Andre had
descended Platteklip Gorge and reached the lower cable station, his lead had
grown to more than 20 minutes, but he actually picked up the pace still further.
“I had no idea what my lead was, and I thought at any moment Will or Nic would
show up. I got lost again coming down Signal Hill, but I bushwhacked a path
down through stinging nettles, mud, grass and rocks, and by then I knew I had
the race in the bag.” Andre stopped the clock on 6:59:36. Ironically, he
thought the record was about 6:46, and didn’t realise that he was on course to
break it – he just liked the idea of going sub-seven hours! “Winning the Puffer was a great highlight. Other trail runs don’t have as much hype
as Puffer, which is known as the hard man’s race. It has a bit of reverence
around it, which made the victory all the sweeter.”

 

ENDURANCE JUNKIE

Andre hails from Stellenbosch, where he studied B.Com
Law after school and went on to complete his LLM Masters. After doing his
articles, he joined the Hereford Group, a Cape Town-based firm of financial
advisers and asset managers, where he is currently the in-house attorney. He is
married to Paulette and they live in Melkosstrand with their brown Labrador
Monty, who is Andre’s regular training partner. “Monty is an absolute animal in
training! I’ve taken him over Table Mountain and for three to four-hour runs,
done intervals, everything, and he just laps it up.”

 

Andre has been running since the age of eight, and in
high school he added cycling and then triathlon to his repertoire, going on to
win multiple junior titles at the All Africa Triathlon Champs, SA Duathlon
Champs, SA Triathlon Champs and SA Cycling Champs. “I was big and strong for my
age, plus the training environment in Stellenbosch, where I was surrounded by
pro triathletes, runners and cyclists, meant I was always going to turn in to a
bit of an ox! I used my strength to my advantage, pulling away on climbs or
staying with the seniors in the elite bunch and pulling clear of the other
juniors. But I’m a big guy and will never be able to run as fast as the top
triathletes in sprint and Olympic distance events, whereas I have the strength you
need for the long endurance events.”

 

And so, after completing his studies, Andre ran the
Two Oceans and Comrades ultras, winning silver medals in both, and finished the
Ironman. Then, in October last year, he says he got lucky in getting a late
entry to his first trail race, the 50km Hout Bay Triple Trouble, and now trail
running is his sole focus. “I have found that you can do trail running and still
have a normal life. I would love to do Comrades and Ironman again in a few
years’ time, but then I want to do them professionally and give them a good
walloping. I think I’m still a bit young, because you’re at your peak for races
like that at 35. Right now I do better in tougher, slower races, which is
probably why I have done better in mountain races. You need a different mindset
for trail running. I know guys who can run a 2:15 marathon on the road, but
after 21 kays of the Otter Trail they’re lying under a bush, while other guys
who can’t even break three hours for a marathon can just pound out the kays on
trail.”

 

NEXT ON THE AGENDA

Looking ahead, Andre says he would like to take on
more ultra trail races, like the Addo, Augrabies and Kalahari races in SA and
the Leadville 100 miler in the USA. In October he will also race the Otter
Trail Marathon, and he has a few ideas for new trail challenges, like ascending
the highest mountain in each province in the shortest time. He is also
exploring the option of turning professional next year. “My work hours are
currently flexible, but that’s still not enough to train fulltime. Don’t be
fooled by flexibility – it normally just means more work in less time.”

 

“Everything in life is about return on investment –
what you put in is what you get out. If you put time and effort into your
marriage, you will have a happy wife and happy life. Same with training and
racing: If you work hard, you will be rewarded. But that said, time on the trail
is never wasted – some days are hard, but it’s always great to be out in
nature, having a great time. It’s spiritual for me. I love to run up Table
Mountain and enjoy the quiet – show me anywhere these days that is really
quiet! That’s why it’s the mountain trails for me.”

It’s perhaps hard to believe now, but not so very long
ago, 25-year-old US-based SA 110-metre hurdler Lehann Fourie was seriously
thinking about retiring from athletics and returning to South Africa to start a
career in business. He felt he had worked so hard for so long to find success
in the high hurdles, getting to the IAAF World Champs in 2009 and 2011 as well
as the World Indoor Champs earlier in 2012, but kept picking up niggly injuries
every time he got into good shape, so he decided the 2012 Olympics would be his
last big meet before he hung up his spikes. Then he picked up a serious injury
in mid-season and saw his chances of going to London slipping away, but just in
time he got back into action and was unexpectedly included in Team SA. And boy
did he grab the opportunity! Next thing he knew, he was finishing seventh in
the Olympic final – and all thoughts of retirement were long forgotten!

 

“I had a great indoors season earlier in the year and
got to World Indoor Champs 60m hurdles final, then I ran 13.31 in Florida for
my first qualifier – we had to equal or better 13.52, so I was in great shape,”
says Lehann. “I came home for the SA Champs and won in a high 13.5, so didn’t
qualify yet, but then I pulled a hip flexor in training. The doctor said rest
10 days, so I gave it 14, but I still hurt it again. I was out for eight weeks
after that and knew time was running out to qualify, so with just three weeks
left, I went to the Netherlands, got patched up by a physio and desperately
tried to qualify.”

 

“I had lost my base fitness, but there was no time
left to practice… I just started racing, three times per week in small meets
across Europe. I started with a 13.7, then a 13.5, and won the African Champs
in Benin in 13.60, but couldn’t hit that A standard, because I didn’t have any
rhythm. Then somehow ASA convinced SASCOC to include me in the Olympic team. I
was really surprised to be selected, and thankful, because I know some other
very deserving athletes weren’t given the same opportunity. Some people said it
was unfair for me to be selected, that I didn’t deserve it, and that started
affecting me, so I disconnected from Facebook and the media.”

 

MAN ON A MISSION

Lehann went to London with a point to prove, and says
he initially just wanted to run sub-13.52 and prove that he could do it. It
really didn’t help his confidence when he fell ill a week before his first
heat, and he was still on antibiotics when he ran, but says that was perhaps a
blessing in disguise, as he was forced to rest and probably went into that
first race much more rested than he would have been. He duly clocked 13.49 to
qualify for the semi-final round. “I went into the semi more confident and ran 13.28,
a new personal best and just 0.02 outside the SA record, and made it to the
final round! At the time I thought that’s the fastest I will ever run, but
after watching the race, I realised I had hit three hurdles, which slowed me
down, so I know I can go faster.”

 

In the final, bad luck struck again as Lehann tangled
arms with the British hurdler in the next lane, causing him to lose rhythm and
hit one of the early hurdles really hard. “I tried to get my rhythm back, but
it’s hard enough to make it back in a normal race, let alone an Olympic final! Still,
I never even expected to make the final, so I was very happy with seventh.
Before the final I stood there on the track and realised I was one of just
eight guys in contention for a medal – but it would be so much better to stand
on the podium, and getting so close has inspired me to work harder for 2016.”

 

STATESIDE SPRINTER

Lehann started running the high hurdles at 16, but
says he didn’t really enjoy the event until he was 18, because other sprinters
were initially faster. “I was fairly tall and thus did better as the hurdles
got higher.” He won the SA School Champs title and bronze at the Africa Junior
Champs in 2005, and the following year went to study at the University of
Potchefstroom, in order to train with then-SA Champ Shawn Bownes. He was
spotted by a talent scout from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln at the SA
Champs and offered a scholarship, which he took up in 2007, doing a double
major in international business and management, on top of his training.

 

“It was really cold in Nebraska, and I found the first
year very frustrating, because it was tough being away from home and didn’t
feel like I was getting results, despite the hard work in training, but I stuck
it out and it got better. I liked the university, and the athletic programme
was really good. We had guys to help us with everything – we even had guy to
set out hurdles for us in training, whereas in SA we always had to do it
ourselves. It was good to get out of SA and get some world experience, and
while it doesn’t suit everybody, I highly recommend SA athletes go if they get
the chance,” says Lehann, who moved to North Carolina and a new coach in 2011
once he had finished his studies.

 

ALL FIRED UP AGAIN

Lehann came back to Pretoria for a week’s holiday
straight after the Games, before returning to Europe to participate in three
Diamond League meetings. Prior to his injury he had received several invites to
top meets, including some of the Diamond League meetings in the Far East, but was
forced to withdraw. Now, thanks to his Olympic performance, he says his agent
is once again receiving invites for him from top meets. He says he is also
getting fan mail and other requests he never received before. “I’m still in awe
of what has happened to me. I’m receiving messages saying I am an inspiration, and
being asked to go speak at schools, so yes, I think this will change my life a
bit, but it won’t change me. I’m really blessed by what has happened the last
few weeks.”

 

However, he is thinking of coming home from the US
now. “I really miss SA and can’t see myself staying in the US for another four
years. I miss my family and friends, and I want to settle down and get married
here eventually. There are also a lot more business opportunities for me here,
where I can start small and get experience while still focussing on athletics,
because I won’t be able to work full-time with daily training and travelling to
meets.”

 

With that
said, Lehann says he is really looking forward to the next few years. “Shawn Bownes
broke the SA record when he was 30 years old, and the high hurdles is a really
technical event that takes years to get right and for your body to develop to
its full potential. At the next Olympics I will be 29 and I think I will be in
even better shape then. I’m no longer feeling pressure, like I need to prove
myself, because London really gave me new belief in myself. I told myself
before the semi-final that I had 13 seconds to change my life and I literally ran
as if it was my last race. I was shocked to make the final, but I felt maybe I
can be one of the best in the world. Now I want to go out there and do that.”

Here’s to our Heroes

The South African
Track and Field team may only have brought home one medal from the 2012 London
Olympics, Caster Semenya’s silver in the women’s 800m, which is on par with the
single silver won by Khotso Mokoena in Beijing 2008 (and South Africa’s only
medal of those Games!), but we had a number of athletes that made the finals of
their events, which bodes well for the future of the sport and gives us great
hope for upcoming World Champs and Olympics!

 

Caster Semenya

Silver in the women’s
800m

 

Sunette Viljoen

4^th in the
women’s javelin

 

Anaso Jobodwana

8^th in the
men’s 200m

 

Khotso Mokoena

8^th in the
men’s long jump

 

Willem Coertzen

9^th in the
men’s decathlon

 

And a special mention
for Oscar ‘Bladerunner’ Pistorius, who
became the first Paralympian to compete in the Summer Olympics, not only making
it through his first round heat to run in the semi-final of the men’s 400m, but
then also joined Willie De Beer, Shaun De Jager and LJ Du Plessis (Following the withdrawal due to injury of Ofenste Mogowane) in the 4x400m team in
the final, where they finished 9^th in a season best time.