Fredericks confident of still qualifying for the Games
Three spots available with four athletes battling to qualify and only 28 days
remaining means the qualification to represent South Africa in the 400-hurdles at the
Olympic Games in Rio is sure to become a tightly contested affair.
As things stand at the moment only LJ van Zyl (Tuks/HPC) is certain of competing at
the Games. His winning time of 48.67s is the combined second fastest time of the
season so far in international athletics.
According to the season’s results Lindsay Hanekom (Tuks/HPC) is currently South
Africa’s second-best hurdler with his time of 49.03s at the South African Open
Championship in Bloemfontein. After his 49.24s performance over the weekend,
LeRoux Hamman (Tuks) is third. Somewhat surprisingly it seems that the 2014
Commonwealth Champion, Cornel Fredericks (Tuks/HPC), is the one who has yet to
qualify. His best time so far is 49.75s which he ran at the South African
Championships in Stellenbosch.
The qualifying period for the Olympic Games is from 1 May 2015 to 11 July 2016.
So as far as the 400-hurdles athletes are concerned a lot can change from now until
11 July. To their credit the athletes relish the current competitive environment they
find themselves in. No one is begrudging anyone his success. In fact, for all of them
it is important that South Africa’s proud history in the 400-hurdles should continue.
In spite of not yet having qualified Fredericks is quite relaxed. He is biding his time,
confident that there will be a good race in his legs. It might just be tomorrow when
he will compete in Lucerne, Switzerland.
“My training has been going really well. What is more important is that I am injury
free. So it is just a question of staying focussed and making sure that I do the small
things right when I race. I know some people may presume that I am under pressure
to get the qualification out of the way but I am not obsessed about it. I have proven
to myself that I can come up with a good race when it matters.”
Cold, windy and wet weather has made for some tough going so far in Europe.
“I won’t be too worried about tomorrow’s weather. The fact that I have been training
in England since last year means that I am used to running in the cold. Sometimes
during the winter we trained in temperatures of 10 degrees and colder.
“What is more important is the fact that I have not competed in more than five races
over the past two years. It is one thing to train and something else to race. My body
has to get used to racing again. This I can promise, I still have the hunger to
succeed and I firmly believe that I still have two or three good years of racing left.
“What I really would love is to have two to three years without any serious setbacks.
So far my best years were 2011 when I finished fifth in the World Championship final
in Daegu and 2014,” said the Tuks/HPC athlete.
There is a good reason why 2014 stands out for Fredericks. It was the season when
he could seemingly do nothing wrong. In 13 races he only failed once to finish in the
top three (finishing fourth) and he was victorious on seven occasions. He won gold
medals at the Commonwealth Games, the African Athletics Championships and the
Continental Cup meeting. To top it all he finished third in the 400-hurdles Diamond
League standings.
Fredericks is grateful for his friendship with Elroy Gelant, South African record
holder in the 5000m).
“Elroy is like a big brother to me and somebody who inspires me. His run in Hengelo
when he set a new South African record of 13:04.88 was really inspiring.”
The South African 400-hurdles champion, Wenda Nel (Tuks/HPC), will also compete
in Lucerne tomorrow.