Teen relay medallist Walaza enjoying life in fast lane

Zaahier Adams

Bayanda Walaza may be primed to take over the South African sprinting baton from Akani Simbine in the future, but right now the 18-year-old Olympic silver medallist is just enjoying life in the fast lane.

Walaza teamed up with his hero Simbine, fellow teenager Bradley Nkoana and Shaun Maswanganyi in South Africa’s 4x100m relay team that claimed silver and a new national record at the recently-concluded Paris Olympics.

Despite Team SA boasting the experience and calibre of 400m world record holder Wayde van Niekerk in the squad, coach Paul Gorries opted to call up the Curro Hazeldean matric pupil to the now-famous quartet after 22-year-old Benjamin Richardson pulled up with a hamstring in his 200m heat.

Until that stage, Walaza was simply living his best life in the Olympic Village.

“My experience … me … I was enjoying. It was really nice. It was like proper,” Walaza said after arriving at OR Tambo International yesterday.

“At first I was that person who thought I wasn’t going to run. I was like, ‘I’m the youngest and they have stronger people. For me, it’s a vacation, so I must enjoy.’ I was eating ice-cream every day there.

“As soon as I realised I was in the team, it shocked me a bit. And then when coach Paul (Gorries) came to me, I was like, ‘You know what boy, now is the time to be ready. You are running. It’s serious now.’

“So, I stopped eating ice-cream.”

Although Walaza arrived in Paris with the reputation of being the fastest teenager in the world after setting a time of 10.13sec in the 100m in March, it was still a daunting experience to be called up to race against some of the fastest men in the world.

“I was really scared to run. There is (Christian) Coleman and all those people. The messages I got from people were inspiring me, so I just went out to run,” Walaza said.

“When I stepped on the track, it was a wonderful feeling because when I walked in, the crowd was wow! It was amazing.

“When I went into the blocks, I muted everything because now it’s me and my God. Whatever is going on, I don’t care. If I faint, I must faint when the baton is out of my hand. I just pushed. It was the best experience ever.”

The teen sprint sensation felt that the time spent preparing for the Olympics helped set up the team for their record-breaking achievement.

“We appreciate Sascoc. The work you did. The camp we had … I don’t think we would have got this medal that we got. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to practise the handovers that allowed us to trust each other,” he said.

“You can’t go to war if you don’t trust each other. We had a bond before we even started running.”

Nkoana, 19, was also grateful for the experience and believes this is the beginning of great things to come.

“I think it has to do with respect as well, more so to your elders. They know what is best and sometimes as youngsters we get ahead of ourselves and think we know better,” Nkoana said.

“We think the world has changed and technology is taking over and think we are better. It goes back to our roots and integrity. I already have a team that’s there for me. I just need to add there and there. I know what happened is big, but I will be able to manage it.”