The Tuks athletics track is where some of the most fantastic breakthrough moments in South African athletics happened.

On Saturday during the Gauteng North Championships there is a real chance of local sports history being made again. Akani Simbine, Simon Magakwe, Henrico Bruintjies and Thando Roto who all got sub ten seconds performances to their name are racing. 

The likes of Clarence Munyai, Thembo Monareng and Gift Leotela could spice up things even more. Only once in the history of South African athletics has two local sprinters dipped under ten seconds in the same 100m race. 

It happened at Tuks in 2017 when Simbine clocked a time of 9.92s and Roto 9.95s. Simbine also became the only South African sprinter to run two sub ten seconds races on the same day. His time in the heats was 9.95s.

The first significant breakthrough race on the Tuks track happened in 2014.  Magakwe started South Africa's sprint revolution by winning the 100 metres in a time of 9.98s. He was the first local sprinter to dip under 10 seconds.

If Saturday's 100m race turns out to be a "speed fest" with Magakwe being one of the fast finishers, it would mean his athletics career has made a 360-degree turn. It will be only his second sub ten seconds race and this time as a Tuks-athlete on the track where he made a name for himself.

At 34 Magakwe can undoubtedly claim to have been there done that and got the T-shirt to prove it. Not only is he a former South African record holder but he has also got eight national 100 m titles to his name. 

The start to his athletics fame sounds like it might be a script from a movie. In 2009 a relatively unknown athlete arrived by taxi in Stellenbosch carrying only a plastic bag containing a pair of borrowed spikes a running vest, shorts and not much else but a dream to be the best at the South African Championships.

He wins the 100 metres against all expectations just to be told he the final has got be rerun. Magakwe is not fazed at all. Only focusses on what needs to be done. An hour or so later, he wins again. That day Magakwe proved to himself and his agent at the time that anything is possible if you believe. 

In 2015 his life self-destructed when he received a two-year ban for missing an out-of-competition drugs test. To use Magakwe's own words, he did things that he never can feel proud in the time he could not race. His mom, Montshonyane, was instrumental to literally get his life back on track in 2016.

"My mom was diagnosed with cancer. Before she died, she had one request. It was not to give up on athletics. She believed I could be champion again. 'Make me proud' was the words my mom used. That is what I have been trying to do ever since."

Magakwe confidently believes that as the "old man" of South African sprinting that he has got a few sub-ten-second races left in his legs.

"I will, however, never be obsessed with running specific times. If you do, it is guaranteed you are going to make mistakes and lose. My racing philosophy is simple. I race to win. If I do there is a real chance that it is going to be a fast time."