OPINION: A flailing and bobbing rocket, Bayanda Walaza is on the rise
This season, 19-year-old Walaza has already secured a gold medal at the World Relays and twice broken the SA junior 100m record.
Bayanda Walaza in action for Tshwane University of Technology at the USSA national student championships in Pretoria earlier this month. Picture: Cecilia van Bers/Gallo Images
When I first saw Bayanda Walaza run, my initial thought was 'this kid isn't gonna make it'.
His raw talent was clear, but in every other way, he was all wrong.
When Walaza hits top speed, his arms start flailing and his head begins bobbing, and he doesn't display anything you want to see in a sprinter.
But one thing I've learned from watching Walaza run is that technique can be deceptive. The 19-year-old prodigy is super quick out the blocks, and when he hits his stride he is bizarrely efficient.
Last season he won a historic 100m/200m double at the World U20 Championships and helped the SA 4x100m relay team earn the silver medal at the Paris Olympics.
Future star?
However, raw talent only takes an athlete so far, and the reality is that most junior stars don't make it at senior level. So coming into the 2025 season, I expected Walaza to hit a plateau and ultimately vanish into obscurity, as so many do.
Oh how glad I am, at least on this occasion, to have been proved wrong.
Opting not to fiddle too much with Walaza's style, his coach Thabo Matebedi seems to have made a wise decision by allowing him to run naturally.
If Walaza was great last year, this season he has been spectacular.
Superb season thus far
Already in 2025, he has formed part of the quartet who won gold in the 4x100m final at the World Athletics Relays, and he has twice broken the SA junior 100m record, lowering the mark to 9.94 in Zagreb at the weekend (just 0.05 outside the world U20 record).
It might seem premature to suggest he could be the next global sprinting superstar, but Walaza's early progress has been impressive, and he is remarkably consistent.
Both a polite young man and a ball of raging energy, he also has the character to become a crowd favourite across the world, and he could be a wonderful ambassador for our country.
How he does it, with flailing arms and a bobbing head, is far less important than what he does, and Walaza already has the medals and records to show he has what it takes.
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