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South Africa's relays prodigy Bayanda Walaza explains how valuable lessons learnt from past failures became instrumental in their victory in Guangzhou.
World Under-20 100m champion Bayanda Walaza has opened up about his past fears that threatened to throw the success of the South African relays team in jeopardy.
Walaza, who won relay silver at Paris 2024, had recently been disqualified from the 200m final at the national championships.
He however praised his teammates Akani Simbine, Bradley Nkoana and Sinesipho Dambile for their reaction in Guangzhou.
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The world Under-20 200m champion ran the first leg for South Africa in the final as they pipped the United States to gold by just 0.05 seconds in the People’s Republic of China.
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But victory only came after a lifeline, with 19-year-old Walaza surviving a false start call that was subsequently overturned by a green flag.
Revealing his worst fears after their unmatched achievement in China, Walaza told Olympics.com. “My teammates came to me and said I gave them a heart attack. What I like about them is that they are not those people who will make you feel down. They won't make you feel like you disappointed them,” he said.
“Even when they came to me they were cool and said next time don't do that. We were joking about it but I was not feeling good."
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Walaza furter explained the chronological order of events that led to the near miss. “Fear overtook my body. But at that moment I think I was at a point where I believed that we could actually win this.
“I was too excited about it and I became anxious. That fear actually took over because when I was there I had too much adrenaline and I'm not used to that. I had that feeling of wanting to come out fast knowing very well that we have the capability of winning this."
World Championships target
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Walaza is enthusiastic that South Africa are among the favourites to win the men’s 4x100m title at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, which takes place 12-21 September.
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“I believe this medal is the key that will make my season much stronger because I don't see myself as a loser. I see myself as a winner because we won there and everywhere I go I know I have a gold medal in world athletics and it means I'm one of the best in the world.”
At 19, Walaza has shown that he is ready to rub shoulders and go toe-to-toe with the best in the world. With age on his side, Walaza who won bronze medal in the 100m at the African U18 Championships in April 2023, has been tipped for greatness.
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