South Africa’s top 400-hurdlers will be hoping to continue a proud tradition set by their predecessors when they settle in their starting blocks for their respective heats on the 15 August 2016.

Since 1992 South Africa’s hurdlers have managed to win a bronze medal at the Olympic Games; silver and bronze at the Senior World Championships; one gold, two silver and a bronze at the Junior World Championships; two gold and one silver at the Youth World Championships and two gold and two silver medals at the Commonwealth Games.

The most outstanding performances came from Llewellyn Herbert who won a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, a silver at the 1997 World Championships, as well as a silver at the 1996 Junior World Championships.

LJ van Zyl (Tuks/hpc)’s performances are equally impressive. He has won a bronze medal at the 2011 World Championships; gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne; silver at the 2010 Games in Delhi and gold at the 2002 Junior World Championships.  All he needs to complete his collection is an Olympic medal.

Tomorrow Van Zyl will line up for a third time to race at the Olympic Games. His best result was in Beijing in 2008 when he finished 5^th in the final.

Purely from a statistical point of view it would seem a mere formality for Van Zyl to qualify for the final. So far this season only five athletes have managed to run faster times than his best time of 48.67s.

However, as a seasoned campaigner Van Zyl has learned to take nothing for granted, especially because the 400-hurdles is the one race that has the ability of bringing an athlete who gets too ‘cocky’ back to humility.

“It is a technical race with a small margin for error. A mere moment’s lapse of concentration, for example touching a hurdle for a brief second, can easily make the difference between winning a medal and finishing last,” explains the Tuks/hpc athlete.

So it will be a case of first things first for Van Zyl tomorrow.

“At the moment I have only one goal. I want to make sure to qualify for the next round. Surviving the heats is not as easy as people seem to think. Once I have done that my focus will be to race to the best of my abilities in the semi-final. Hopefully that will be good enough to ensure a place in the final. Then, and only then, I might start to dream about winning a medal.”

Van Zyl credits his coach, Irma Reyneke, for the revival of his athletics career over the past two years.

“She is the one who made me believe in my abilities as a hurdler again. Actually she and I made a pact last year. Irma’s dream has always been to go to the Olympic Games as a member of the South African team. Unfortunately for her, due to the politics of the day, she was never able to do so when she was at the peak of her athletic career.

“So I said to her if she coaches me I will make sure she will go to Rio. In the end Irma did not help only me, she helped Wenda (Nel) and Leroux Hamman as well to qualify for the Olympic Games.”

Lindsay Hanekom (Tuks/hpc) is the other 400m-hurdler that will be competing.