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Olympic 800m silver medallist Hazekiel Sepeng believes Team South Africa has the firepower to finally end its medal drought at the upcoming World Athletics Championships in Tokyo from 13–21 September.
South Africa last reached the podium at the London edition in 2017 and has since endured barren campaigns in Doha, Oregon, and Budapest.
But Sepeng, now Athletics South Africa’s (ASA) High Performance Manager, is confident that the streak will be broken this year.
ASA has announced a 49-member squad made up of 32 men and 17 women, including eight national record holders: Akani Simbine (100m), Tshepo Tshite (1500m), Elroy Gelant (marathon), Antonio Alkana (110m hurdles), Marione Fourie (100m hurdles), Ashley Erasmus (shot put), and Jessica Groenewald (35km race walk).
Only two athletes in the squad — Jo-Ann Du Plessis and Wade van Niekerk — have individual Olympic medals.
Van Niekerk, who will run the 200m in Tokyo, is also a two-time world championship medallist. Still, Sepeng believes there is enough quality to bring medals home.
“While our biggest hopes remain with the relays, particularly the 4x100m team, we also have athletes like Akani Simbine and Jo-Ann Du Plessis.
I think we can win as many as three medals or more. This is a promising squad full of talent, and you’ve seen what our athletes have done in Europe — fighting and showing the world what they are capable of,” Sepeng told SABC Sport.
Simbine and Du Plessis are the only South Africans to reach the podium at the Diamond League Final this year.
Meanwhile, the men’s 4x100m relay team has shown consistent form, winning silver at the Paris Olympics and gold at the World Relays in China earlier this year.
“We have worked hard on the relay project and are starting to see results. The team will have a few days in Japan to fine-tune their preparations, and I believe they can challenge for a medal,” Sepeng added.
The squad will travel in two groups, with the first contingent flying out to Tokyo on Friday at 11:20am and the second following on Monday.
A number of athletes based in Europe and the US will link up with the team in Japan
