Getting to help the South African men's 4x100m-relay team to medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games is not the only goal Paul Gorries set himself. 

Having been an athlete himself, South Africa's national relay coach based at Tuks realises how easy it is to lose focus and quit without ever getting to fulfill once dreams. In 2000 Gorries believed that he made it to the big time. He had just won gold in the 200 metres during the Junior World Championships in Chili. He got offered all sorts of contracts. 

"I allowed my success to go to my head. It led to me becoming a 'difficult' athlete. Needless to say, my results started becoming subpar when I began competing as a senior athlete."

Gorries's last real hurrah in international athletics was being part of the South African 4x400m-relay team that won a silver medal during the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. 

His story is not unique in South African athletics. The statistics will show that too often the athletes who medalled at the World Junior and World Youth Championships fades away as they found the step up from junior to senior athletics to be an enormous challenge. 

Being the national relay coach as well as a sprint coach at Tuks it is something Gorries hopes to help change. 

"South African athletics will stand to benefit if coaches start to realise that sometimes they literally need to babysit talented youngsters during their transition from the junior to a senior level. As their coach, you need to know when to be hard and when to back off. Not every coach can do so. The lessons I learned from being a competitive athlete are hopefully going to stand me to good stead," said the Tuks sprint coach.

Getting back to his role as the national relay coach Gorries said that the four athletes who raced the final during last year's World Championships are for now assured of their places in the men's 4x100m relay team. 

"We definitely shall need backup during the Tokyo Olympic Games especially considering that Akani Simbine is aiming to do double up racing the 100m as well as 200m. It means he could be running over five consecutive days. I want him rested for the final."

The norm in South Africa is that athletes get to decide whether they are available to run for the national relay team. It provides Gorries with a unique challenge. 

"In the countries where athletes are paid, the coaches are assured that the best athletes will run. I mostly got to rely on personal relationships with athletes to get them to do what I want."

For this reason, Gorries want to liaise closely with whoever is coaching the junior relay teams. 

"I don't want to find myself in the same situation as last year, where I needed to teach senior athletes how to run a relay. It is something they got to learn as juniors. When an athlete is selected for the senior national relay team, the only focus should be on strategy."