Johannesburg – Gift Leotlela (TuksSport High School) proved that his coach’s confidence in him is justified on Saturday when he won the 200m at the CAA Southern Region Under-20 Championships in Lusaka in an Olympic qualifying time of 20.47 seconds.
His training partner and friend, Clarence Munyai (also TuksSport High), ran a time 20.45 in the heats to qualify for a third time in the 200 metres for the Rio Olympics. Munyai, however, was disqualified in the final.
Tamzin Thomas came close to qualifying in the 100m for Rio. She won in 11.37, which is just 0.05 outside the Olympic qualifying standard.
Last year, after Leotlela won the 100m at the Youth Commonwealth Games in Samoa in 10.20, Hennie Kriel (Tuks/HPC coach) predicted that the young athlete has what it takes to compete at the Olympic Games.
Leotlela also won the 200 metres at the Youth Games in a time of 20.56. If it had not been for a wind of 2.6m/s from behind, this would have been a new South African youth record.
This year he won the South African junior 100 metres title in a time of 10.21 – just 0.05 seconds slower than the Olympic qualifying standard of 10.16.
A definite highlight for Leotlela was when, at the end of May in Palafrugell, Spain, and running against senior athletes, he won the 100m in 10.21 and the 200m in 20.96 within 30 minutes of each other.
Kriel said what excites him about Leotlela as an athlete is his focus on success.
“At times it can be quite challenging to coach Gift. He always wants to know what he can do to run that little bit faster,” said Kriel.
“Much will depend on how motivated and hungry for success Gift is. It is important that he should realise that he is bound to suffer setbacks. It will be his ability to bounce back from these disappointments that will determine whether he has what it takes to become a true champion in a few years from now.”
Ironically, at the beginning of this year, Leotlela considered himself as a sprinter with a good start who is able to keep his top speed until the end in the 100 metres.
“In the 200m, I still battle to keep my top speed right up to the finish, but we will get there.”
When asked what made Leotlela such a talented sprinter Kriel said that, in his capacity as a coach, he has studied the techniques of various top sprinters in great detail in an attempt to find out what makes them good.
“The top speed achieved by an athlete such as Usain Bolt is unnatural. A young athlete needs to be specifically trained to emulate Bolt’s technique. The most natural sprinter is definitely Asafa Powell. His sprinting technique is nearly faultless. Gift is an athlete in the same mould as Powell and that’s what makes it so exciting to coach him.”
– African News Agency