'This will be motivation for them not to give up on their dreams' - Walaza touches down to royal welcome
It takes a special kind of 18-year-old to line up against the likes of Christian Coleman and Aaron Brown in a packed Stade de France at the start of a 4x100m Olympic relay final and not get overwhelmed by the occasion. That’s precisely what Bayanda Walaza did when he ran the lead-off leg for the South African team that won the silver medal - the nation’s first ever Olympic 4x100m medal.
That he managed to get out of his blocks, keep his cool and hand over the baton to Shaun Maswanganyi, the matriculant thanks Akani Simbine. Because after scorching to a red hot 10.13 to win the national U20 title at the ASA U16, U18, U20 & U23 Championships in Pretoria in March, much was expected from Walaza’a clash against the Olympic finalist and 7-time SA 100m champion at the ASA Senior Track and Field Championships at the Msunduzi Stadium in Pietermaritzburg a month later. Walaza's performance didn't live up to expectation.
With an expectant crowd of juniors cheering him on, the Curro Hazeldean youngster was drawn in the lane beside AK47 and despite going toe-to-toe with the 2018 Commonwealth champion over the first 50m, he could only watch in awe as the man twelve years his senior rocketed away to a 10.01 victory. Walaza finished in a distant second in 10.27 taking the silver medal and a priceless lesson.
"That was my most nervous moment. People were expecting me to do more than what I did there. It was too much and I was thinking a lot. Because when I was training I kept on telling myself that I’ll beat Akani. I’ll beat Akani. Then I don’t know what happened. I learnt that I must be me at all times. I must not be overwhelmed by what’s happening. I must just be me. I also learnt that from Akani himself. He came up to me and told me that you run everyday, you do this everyday, so why must you change now? Do what makes you comfortable is what he taught me."
That was the turning point. Just over three months later Walaza, Simbine, Maswanganyi and Bradley Nkoana carried the hopes of athletics loving South Africans who had hitherto watched #Paris2024 without seeing one of their own stand upon the rostrum. Walaza kept his cool, Maswanganyi and Nkoani got the baton to Akani who flew from fifth to second in the home straight to spark national celebrations.
Having been raised by a single mother in Katlehong after his father passed away and attended Hoërskool Vorentoe in inner city Johannesburg before being recruited by Curro, Walaza knows exactly what this medal means to his peers. His schoolmates packed the OR Tambo international airport this morning (13 August) as Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie, ASA President James Moloi and Gauteng Sports, Arts, Culture, Recreation and Education MEC Matome Chiloane welcomed him and Nkoana. The excellent Walaza knows that some kid in some school or some township started sprinting down a potholed street, dreaming of Olympic glory because he saw Walaza run on the biggest stage of them all.
"I think this will be motivation for them not to give up on their dreams because I have been dreaming about this since I was young. For me it’s like helping them to reach places where they never thought they would reach. I want to motivate the young people who don’t believe in themselves because even here at school there are some boys who didn’t do athletics or sports and then they just came out of nowhere when they heard that I’ve qualified for the Olympics. Now they have that belief that if he did it we can also do it."
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