Four young men from a Pretoria high school are the talk of the town, and the world of athletics, after smashing the world record for the 4x100m relay for U18 boys.
Matodzi Ndou, Inam Dlunge, Adam Motloung and Zattu Hlongwane are all learners at Curro Hazeldean in Pretoria, the same school that Bayanda Walaza attends.
If you remember, Walaza was a member of the SA senior men’s 4x100m relay team that won silver at the Paris Olympic Games just a few weeks ago.
Walaza, Akani Simbine, Shaun Maswanganyi and Bradley Nkoana set an African record with a blazing 37.57 seconds for their silver-medal winning run. Canada claimed gold and Great Britain bronze.
Now Walaza’s school mates, though a year or so younger, are following in his footsteps, so to speak.
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World record
At the North West University Top 30 schools meeting in Potchefstroom at the weekend, the U18 boys quartet from Curro Hazeldean ran a blistering 39.92 to break the world record previously held by the USA of 39.95 set in 2015.
A video of the four boys winning their race by several metres has received plenty of views on social media, with Ndou, Dlunge, Motloung and Hlongwane all hailed as future stars of the track. They are coached by Thabo Matebedi, the same man who has helped hone Walaza.
Ndou hit the headlines last month when at an athletics meeting at the Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria he set a new South African record for the 110m hurdles for U17 boys. He ran a time of 12.98 seconds, the best in the world this year for the age group and the third fastest time ever for U17 boys.
“It feels great. It’s something that I’ve been planning, but I wasn’t really sure if I would run this fast. I’m still processing it all. It’s amazing to run here with some of the best athletes,” he told the Curro website after the run.
Next Bayanda Walaza
Curro sport portfolio manager Cindy van der Merwe told the website: “What we have in mind when it comes to Curro is to give athletes the opportunity to be exposed to a next level event. We see the bigger picture.
“We are already looking for the future Bayanda in Matodzi. And it would make our hearts warm if, at the next Olympics in Los Angeles (in 2028), we have four to six athletes representing South Africa that ran at our Podiums (athletics meetings).”
For the record, South Africa are also the holders of the world U20 4x100m relay record, with a time of 38.51 seconds, set in Nairobi in 2021.
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