A hamstring injury is why South African 800m champion Edmund du Plessis must postpone his plans to compete against the stopwatch.

This means that the fourth-year medical student at UP-Tuks has to postpone his plans to qualify for the 2025 World Indoor Championships in China. The plan was to start the race at the end of the month.

"At this stage, I don't know when I can start competing. I'm only allowed to cycle and swim for the next four weeks. What's bothersome is that it's not just that I had injured a muscle. The tendon that holds the muscle has torn away from the bone. A piece of the bone has also broken off. So, I must be patient. A tendon injury takes longer to heal. However, the doctor is confident that I will compete this season.

"I would have liked to have tried to qualify for the World Indoor Championships, but that's a done deal now. Fortunately, the World Athletics Championships don't take place until September. So there's plenty of time to qualify for that. If I have to, I will do it in Europe as I did for the Olympics last year."

According to the Tuks student-athlete, his pre-season preparation has gone well.

"The time trials I ran indicated that I am faster than last year."

Du Plessis was deservedly named Bestmed Student Sportsman of the Year at last year's TuksSport Awards. He won the 800 metres at the South African Championships for the second consecutive year. Equally exciting is that he improved his best time over the distance by almost three seconds. At the end of 2023, his best time was 1:47.10, and at the end of last year, it was 1:44.22.

As things stand, he is now fourth on South Africa's all-time list in the 800 metres. Only Hezekiel Sepeng (1:42.69—1999), Mbulaeni Mulaudzi (1:42.86—2009), and Johan Botha (1:43.91—1999) have been faster.

Du Plessis can also feel satisfied with his first participation in the Olympics. He took the lead during the semi-finals when he felt the pace was too slow. The challenge was to have a top-two finish. He got oh so close to doing so. He was still second with about 15 meters to race, but unfortunately, his legs went on strike. Two athletes passed him over the final meters, leading to him missing out by 0.17 seconds to go through to the final. It was the first time he competed at the Games.

He is not disappointed with how things turned out.

"I don't think things would have turned out differently if I had taken a different approach in the semi-finals. Just being able to compete in the Olympics was good for my confidence. Before that, I had only seen the best athletes on television. Competing against them in Paris made me realise I was on their level. Maybe not quite, but very close to their level. The mistake you make is underestimating yourself."