Another race, another sprint record for barnstorming Bayanda Walaza

Bayanda Walaza has done it again.

The 19-year-old hammered another national under-20 record as he delivered a red-hot performance on a cold Wednesday evening to win the 200m in 20.08sec.

Just four days earlier, he did the same in the 100m by lowering the age-group mark to 9.99.

Both times qualify him automatically for the world championships in Tokyo in September, and he is the first South African so far to have achieve the standard in the longer sprint.

Walaza, a first-year supply chain management student at Tshwane University of Technology, got off to another lightning start — an element that has become a feature of his racing — and he stormed around the University of Johannesburg track, his head still bobbing, to cross the line nearly 0.3sec ahead of his nearest rival.

The cold temperature that followed the afternoon rain didn’t faze him. “I believe once you’re fast you don’t have to complain about anything,” he said.

“You cannot control how the weather is you know so it is better to make it work for you because if you start saying about the weather I think you might start to doubt yourself because I know most of us, we’re trying to run for best times.”

Walaza said he and his coach had already decided to do the sprint double at the national championships in Potchefstroom next month, though they would have to think about their strategy for Japan.

“We’ll see as the year goes [on] because it’s still a long [time]. September is too far so I believe we’re going to find which one is right or if I am strong enough, as I believe that I’m strong enough, I can do double.”

Walaza will be in action at the South African junior championships next weekend when he will go up against Karabo Letebele, who beat Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala at the first ASA GP meet in Pretoria a week earlier.

Omanyala, without Letebele in the field, won this time around, crossing first in 10.08.

Udeme Okon, South Africa’s other gold medallist at the under-20 world championships last year, finished first in the men’s 400m in 45.27, ahead of Lythe Pillay in 45.74.

Okon will do the 200m-400m double at the national age-group meet in Cape Town.

Marioné Fourie, who pulled out of the world indoor championships in China to attend the funeral of her coach, Jaun Strydom, produced her fastest time on home soil, winning the women’s 100m hurdles in 12.69, with second-placed matric pupil Tumi Ramokgopa clocking 13.22 to break the women’s under-20 record.

Fourie said she hadn’t expected to go so fast: “I was actually considering not running today because I thought it was going to rain ... So I think running and getting this time up on the board is a good direction heading into the national championships.”

But she was too emotional to speak about her coach. “I’ve dedicated this to my coach ... I think he would be very proud of this race,” she said through tears.

In other action, Zeney Geldenhuys won the women’s 400m in 51.26, ahead of Shirley Nekhubui (51.42) and Marlie Viljoen (51.85). Viwe Jingqi won the women’s 100m in 11.32.