Challenging the stopwatch over 800 metres seems to be Charne Swart’s favourite pastime.
Judging by her results over the last four years, the Tuks medical student is winning the “battle against time”. In 2020 her best time in the two-lap race was 2:13.96. This season in April, she clocked 2:03.28. It equates to being nearly 10 seconds faster than she was in 2020.
Caster Semenya, Prudence Sekgodiso and Gena Lofstrand are the only South African female athletes to have been faster over 800 metres since 2013.
Running 2:03.28 means Swart has qualified to represent South Africa at the World Student Games in Chengdu, China (28 July to 8 August). The Tuks athlete is not one to rest on her laurels. Swart believes she is capable of running even faster times.
“The ultimate would be to dip under two minutes. The times I have been running during training indicate that it is possible. But it will be a mistake to be obsessed with it. When it happens, it happens. It will take a perfect race on a perfect day to break two minutes. I am patient.
“I am leaving for Europe next week to compete in three races. There may be that one exciting result.”
Her consistency in her last five races must have been exciting for Swart. She has been running 2:04 and 2:03 times. During the Golden Grand Prix Meeting in Botswana, she missed out on setting a new best time by 0.04s. She won the South African student title clocking 2:03.73.
According to Swart, there is no definite way to run the 800 metres.
“My race strategy tends to change depending on whom I race. The reality is that no one races to lose. There were races where I tried to ‘kill off’ my rivals by pure speed. Time trialling from the very first second. Other times getting results means you got to be tactically savvy.
“The most important thing about running a good 800 metres is running at an even pace throughout. It is something I focus on doing during training.”
Since last year Swart has also been competing over 1500 metres. The Tuks athlete admits it will still take a while for her to be competitive.
“I have only raced three 1500 metres races this season. In two of them, I ran poorly. In the third in Cape Town, I was unlucky to have been beaten by Prudence Sekgodiso. We were separated by 0.05s. That result was a morale booster for me. In the long run, the 1500m might be my better event.
The Tuks athlete attributes her success to putting in the long hard hours on the track and trying to push the boundaries.
“I have also been spending more hours in the gym. But what really makes the difference is our training group. We genuinely support and encourage each other. If I run a good race, everyone is excited and vice versa. That is a big motivation.”
When listening to Swart talk, it is abundantly clear that running is her passion.
“At times, it feels as if running is my job and that my studies are only something else I have to do. The days I don’t run, I feel bad. What I love is the sense of achievement I get every time I achieve one of the goals I had set for myself.”