Tireless granny keeps rising star Wayde on track

The coach who mentored Wayde van Niekerk to the 400m gold medal in Beijing is a great-grandmother with a roaming eye for new tricks.

"Tannie" Ans Botha, 73, has trained athletes since 1968, but this was the first time she had attended the athletics World Championships.

On the warm-up track she got to see in the flesh the world's greatest athletes, including Usain Bolt of Jamaica.

"I really saw a lot and ... I steal with my eyes," she said after Van Niekerk's triumph at the Bird's Nest.

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"I look and I see. I've picked up such a lot. And I'm going to implement it. This is also a learning process for me ... you're never, ever too old to learn, especially in our sport."

Botha, a full-time coach at the University of the Free State where Van Niekerk is a student, choked up and fought back the tears as she spoke about the pressure of handling her protege .

"I have such a big responsibility to get this athlete to develop to his full potential, and also the responsibility for myself to try to do my very best not to do something wrong which can make or break him."

When Van Niekerk first joined her in late 2012, he was physically fragile and prone to injury. In his first race with her a few months later, he clocked 48 seconds and then collapsed in a heap, just as he did after his 43.48 winning sprint on Wednesday night.

"This is not new," she said. "The first time he went 44.91 [last year] it was the same thing, he was lying down at the finish line for about half an hour.

"When he goes into a race, he absolutely gives it his all."

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Botha's main concern is keeping Van Niekerk free of injury. "We listen to what his body says to us. If his body says stop, then we stop. We go a little softer, slower.

"He's a hard worker. A very strong mind. If he sets a goal, he goes for that 100%."

Van Niekerk said that amid the grind there was time to joke. "Tannie relates to us quite easily, something I really love. We can talk nonsense with her and she'll talk nonsense back, so there's always that laughter when it comes to training.

"She'll hit us by surprise now and then with the sayings that she has, and we'll be like 'Whoa!'," he said.

Botha, a Kaizer Chiefs and Manchester United fan, has no intention of retiring.

"My passion is too [great] to stop ... I am busy with young people and when you're busy with young people you have to be up there."