Lebogang Shange proved he would be a definite medal contender at next year’s Commonwealth Games in Australia with his heroic 4th place finish during the 20km race walk at the IAAF World Championships in London.

The HPC race walker surprised friend and foe on Sunday with the way he was prepared to take on the world’s best over the last few kilometres of the race. 

He came like a train to move up from the 20th at halfway and 23 seconds in arrears, and then went through the field like a dose of salts to take the lead is how the IAAF described Shange’s performance in their race report. The South African still led going into the last lap, but unfortunately, he ran out of steam over the last two kilometres. 

His effort, however, was not in vain. He clocked a time of 1:19:18 which is 48 seconds faster than the South African record (1:20:06) he set last year in Adelaide. Shange seems to be making a habit of setting records at the World Championships. In 2015 in Beijing he finished 11th in a time of 1:21:43 which was also a record at the time.

More importantly is that he was the first Commonwealth athlete to finish in London. Dane Bird-Smith (Australia) who won a bronze medal at last year’s Olympic Games in Rio was 6th in 1:19:28. Irfan Kolothum (India) was 23rd in 1:21:40 and Samuel Ireri Gathimba (Kenia) 30th in 1:22:52.

Shange was not at first selected by ASA to compete at the World Championships in spite of having qualified according to the standards set by the IAAF. The initial snub certainly must have motivated Shange.

“I won’t lie. There can be no greater honour than winning a medal for my country at a major championship.  It would be the ultimate achievement if I should manage to do so. Hopefully, South African sports fans will then begin to consider race-walking as a serious sport,” said the HPC-athlete the day before he was going to compete.

Hours before Sunday’s race when asked what his goal is Shange’s confidently predicted that it was going to be a great race.

Shange said he learned from his mistakes which led to him finishing in a disappointing 44th position at the 2016 Olympic Games.

“Last year I made the mistake of racing too often and spending too many hours travelling. That cost me a big time in Rio as I had nothing left in my legs on race day.  My coach, Chris Britz, and I planned my built-up to the World Championships to the finest detail. I only had one goal, and that was to be at my best at the World Championships.”

An ecstatic Britz was on Sunday impressed how Shange was able to execute the gameplan they have agreed on beforehand to perfection.

“One of the aspects we worked on was to increase Lebogang’s race speed. That I why I had him compete in a few European track races. About four weeks before the World Championships he set a new South African record over 5 000 metres. That made me realise that he is on track to have a good race in London.”