He’s heading into probably his last Olympics in good form, but LJ van Zyl is still working as hard as ever on fine-tuning his technique heading into the Rio Games.
The 31-year-old 400m hurdles star will line up in the London Diamond League on Saturday at the 2012 Olympic Stadium against an outstanding field that includes the fastest man this year, American Johnny Dutch (48.10).
But Van Zyl has been consistent throughout the season, and is still ranked joint fifth in 2016 with a best of 48.67. With all his experience of two past Olympics and countless world championships, Van Zyl is a genuine medal contender in Rio.
He hopes to sort out an issue on the bend in London on Saturday after he finished second in Hungary on Monday at the same meeting where Akani Simbine broke the South African 100m record.
Van Zyl clocked a time of 49.78 in Hungary, and while that wasn’t a particularly quick time, he is hoping to perfect his execution on Saturday. “I will most definitely want to run the second bend in a much stronger manner,” the 2011 world championship bronze medallist told Independent Media from London on Friday.
“It will be a full field with nine top athletes. That is why I decided to come to London – to measure myself (against a strong field) and to get a hard race in before the Olympics. Ideally I’m looking to get a few technical things right instead of chasing a fast time.”
Apart from Dutch, the rest of the field resembles a virtual Olympic final field, with the likes of two other Americans, Kerron Clement and Michael Tinsley, as well as Puerto Rican Javier Culson, Turk Yasmani Copello and Britain’s Jack Green.
But Van Zyl will have another responsibility outside of his race: inspiring 100m sprinter Carina Horn to break a national record on Saturday. He was Simbine’s roommate in Hungary and on the morning of the event, “I joked with Akani and asked him if the password on his iPhone is 9898 (to resemble 9.89) when I wanted to check something on his phone,” Van Zyl said. “I will have to motivate Carina as well!”
And there is every chance that Horn can break the national women’s record of 11.06 she shares with Evette de Klerk, as the field in London includes Jamaican superstar Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price, while there are four other athletes who have run 11 seconds flat or faster.
Perhaps Van Zyl should suggest to Horn that her phone password is 1099? “That’s what I also thought!” he quipped.
There are two other South Africans also participating in the two-day Anniversary Games in London – Wenda Nel in the 400m hurdles (her race is late on Friday night) and Stephen Mokoka in the 5 000m.
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