Sokwakhana Zazini (TuksSport High School) is going to be one of the greats of South African athletics.

This prediction was made yesterday by Hennie Kriel who coaches Zazini after he won the 400m at the South African Junior Championships in the Paarl in a time of 45.86s. In doing so, he became only the second junior athlete to run a sub 46s race. Riaan Dempers was the first running 45.15s in 1994.

It is the second time in two years that Zazini has won both the 400m and the 400m-hurdles at the national championships. His winning time in the hurdles in Paarl was 49.98s.

Zazini admits that he had to dig deep to win the gold medal in the 400m.

“It has been my goal for a while now to break the 46 seconds barrier. The secret to doing so is to be focused. So when I settled in the starting blocks, I told my mind to switch on into racing mode. It is always special when you get to achieve the goal you set yourself.”

Kriel has just reason to make bold statements because Zazini has become a real trailblazer. Last year he set a world youth record in the 400m-hurdles (48.84s) and won a gold medal at the World Youth Championships. 

Another highlight was this year’s South African Senior Championships where he finished second in the 400m-hurdles final running 49.32s beating the likes of LJ van Zyl, Cornel Fredericks and Le Roux Hamman who are all former Olympians.

The reason for Zazini’s success is that he never shies away from a challenge. He has already said that he is going to race to win at the World Junior Championships in Finland (10-15 July in Tampere, Finland). 

Because he is a first-year junior, it is expected that he would have said that he was going to compete to gain experience, but Zazini is not your average junior athlete. He wants to be the best every time he races. Second is a word he hates. One of his most significant assets as an athlete is that he never allows himself to be intimidated no matter against whom he is racing.

If one looks at the statistics, Zazini has a realistic chance to medal at the World Junior Championships. If he does, he will be one step closer to repeating the feat that has only been achieved by Jacques Freitag in South African Athletics. That is to win a World Youth, World Junior and World Senior titles.

The TuksSport High School Grade 12-learner’s time of 49.32s ranks him currently 8th on the IAAF’s senior list. On last year’s IAAF junior rankings he would have place 2nd, in 2016 7th and 2015 2nd.

400m-hurdles or 400m? 

"I am first and foremost a hurdler. The reason why I love competing in the 400m is as it helps to improve my speed,” said the Tuks athlete.