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• #TuksAthletics: Fredericks realizes that SA 400m-hurdlers need to run faster times

The international 400m-hurdles “war” will not be won by running 49 seconds and slower.

 

So there is good reason why the former Commonwealth Champion, Cornel Fredericks, is going to be a man on a mission tonight (5 June) when he starts his international campaign at the Memorial Josef Odlozil Meeting in Prague.

 

Fredericks is fully aware that no less than 13 international athletes have already this season clocked times faster than 49 seconds in the 400m-hurdles while no South African athlete has yet been able to do so. 

 

The Tuks-athlete is for the moment South Africa’s fastest hurdler having run 49.27s in March. Constant Pretorius set a massive new personal best yesterday (03/06) running 49.28s. At the end of last year his best time was 50.64s which means that Pretorius has improved by more than a second. The South African record holder, LJ van Zyl, has so far run a season’s best of 49.29s. 

 

It is interesting to note that in the history of South African athletics that only ten 400m-hurdle athletes managed to dip under 49 seconds. 

 

According to Fredericks he and his friend the Olympian, Lindsay Hanekom, debated a few days ago as to what it will take to qualify for the final at the World Championships in London.

 

“We agreed that the international athletes have already set the standard and that the challenge for us as South Africans is to catch up. Without a doubt, we need to start running sub 49 second times because that is the only guarantee to get invited to the bigger races which will enable us to get used to racing under pressure.”

 

Fredericks is hesitant to make any prediction about the time he might run tomorrow.

 

“I had a good three weeks of training and I am confident that I am capable of running fast times. Whether it is going to be in Prague is debatable. I felt I was on track to dip under 49 seconds before the South African Championships in Potchefstroom but as luck would have it I had to withdraw from competing due to lower back injury. I am only now starting to regain my confidence. So racing in Prague is going to be a case of ‘testing the waters’ to see where I am at the moment.”

 

Fredericks is shortlisted to race at the Diamond League Meeting in Oslo (15 June). All probably depends on how his race plays out tomorrow. He will definitely race in Samorin (17 June).

 

Hanekom is also racing in Prague. It is only his second race for the season, therefore, he has no big expectations.

 

“It will just be great to be back on the track doing what I like. That is to race,” said the Tuks-athlete.

The South African women’s champion, Wenda Nel, is also in action. According to her, it is high time she starts her international campaign.

 

“It has been a while since I have last raced so I am slightly nervous, but it is good nervousness. I got time in the back of my mind of what I would like to run hopefully I will do so.”

 

In the last few weeks, Nel has twice improved her best time in the 400 metres which proves that she is in good form.