Nearing 34, the South African 400m-hurdles champion Wenda Nel can honestly claim to have been there, done that and got the T-shirt to prove it.
In the 12 years she has been hurdling, the Tuks athlete won bronze at the Commonwealth Games claimed two African titles and nine South African titles. Nel was also a World Champs finalist.
But as it is said, all good things must come to an end. That is why Nel will put her spikes away for good at the end of her 13th season as the 400m-hurdler. But before she does, she hopes to “tick a few more boxes”. But that is not her primary motivation. This season she is running for the love of running.
“The plan was actually to retire last year, but throughout the season, there were so many uncertainties. Even after I had qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games, nothing was certain. It felt like the Games could be cancelled at any moment. To make a long story short. My last race in 2021 was an anti-climax. I did not want to end my hurdling career like that.”
Nel admits that Birmingham Commonwealth Games did partly influence her decision. She won a bronze medal at the 2018 Gold Coast Games.
“It would be nice to compete one more time at the Games and maybe a World Champs. Who knows, I might even get to run a final. But it is going to be about first things first. Before I can dream, I must qualify. There are never any guarantees in sport.
“Every athlete hopes to end their career with that one final outstanding performance, but I am not obsessing about it. It is more important to savour every moment on the track. If I run the slowest time of my career in my last race, I will not consider myself a failure. I am at peace as to how my career played out. I consider 2022 as a blessing to my athletics journey.”
Nel has had many highlights over the past 12 years. The Tuks athlete won her first senior national title in 2010. Ever since, she dominated. She was only beaten in 2013 and 2019 at SA’s.
One of Nel’s best performances were undoubtedly her 2018 duel at Tuks with Zeney van der Walt (a former world junior and youth champion).
Heading towards the last hurdle at the national champs, it was no foregone conclusion that Nel would win. She and Van der Walt were running shoulder to shoulder. Unfortunately, Van der Walt made the slightest of errors. Not that it meant the fight to win the coveted title got any less intense. Nel just managed to pip Van der Walt on the line winning in 55.01s, with the young up-start finishing in 55.05s.
Then there was that “Wow moment”. In 2015 Nel ran 54.37 seconds at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Beijing. It was a personal best time.
“Anyone who wants to write about my race should use the word ‘wow’ because it describes my feelings perfectly. Every hurdler hopes for that one perfect race when your stride rhythm is perfect, and everything plays out as it should. If that happens, it is ‘wow’,” an elated Nel said afterwards.
Later that year, she was seventh in the 400m-hurdles final of the 2015 World Championships final in Beijing. The Tuks athlete best years in international athletics were undoubtedly between 2014 and 2018. During those five years, she counted amongst the 20 fastest in the world. In 2018 she was the ninth fastest.
In 2014 and 2016, she was the African 400m-hurdles champion. The Tuks athlete competed at the 2016 and 2021 Olympic Games.
