There is a good chance that most local sports fans do not know in which event the most South African male athletes rank amongst the top 100 on the world all-time list.
Many, and rightly so, will say it is the 100 metres. That would be a good answer. Akani Simbine’s name appears in joint 18th place (9.82s), Benjamin Richardson in joint 35th place (9.86s) and Gift Leotlela in joint 46th place (9.87s). But that is it. They are the only South Africans whose names appear in the top 100 of the world’s all-time list.
The correct answer is that the 400m hurdles is South Africa’s best event on the all-time list, based on times. There are five athletes. LJ van Zyl is 38th (47.66s), Llewellyn Herbert is jointly 48th (47.81s), Ockert Cilliers is 74th (48.02s), Alwyn Myburgh is jointly 87th (48.09s), and Cornel Fredericks is jointly 98th (48.14s).
One of the heartaches of South African athletics is that the men’s 400m hurdles has become a Cinderella event in recent years. Since 2017, only five athletes have run the number in under 49 seconds. A sub-49 time indicates whether an athlete is talented.
The last time a South African male athlete won a medal in the 400m hurdles at a world championship was in 2018. Sokwakhana Zazini won at the World Junior Athletics Championships in a time of 49.42s.
In two weeks from now, when Tuks’ Matodzi Ndo competes in the 400m hurdles at the World Junior Athletics Championships in Eugene, USA, the story may change. In March at the South African Junior Championships in Germiston, he won in 48.64 seconds.
His winning time is a national junior record, the fastest by any South African athlete this year, and one of the 32 fastest in the world so far in 2026. On the all-time list for U.20 athletes, his name appears in 12th place. This season, only Japan’s U.20 athlete, Taiju Gdo, ran a faster time.
Asked if all the statistics made him feel intimidated, Ndo’s response was, “No. It excites me to be motivated and not nervous. This is my only chance to compete at the World Junior Championships, so I must make it count.”
Being fast over the hurdles comes easily to Ndo. In 2024, he broke the South African U18 record in the 110 hurdles with a time of 12.98s.
In light of this, Ndo catches one off guard when he confesses that there was a time when he hated competing in hurdles.
“Being a good hurdler requires long, hard hours. At one point, it just got too much for me. I stopped. I couldn’t do it anymore. Luckily, someone talked me into competing in hurdles again. Over time, I learned to love hurdles. My strength is definitely my speed; my technique is not what it should be. It has already let me down.”
So that you know, four of the five 400 m hurdlers whose names appear on the World Athletics all-time list are former Tuks athletes.
The other Tuks athletes who will be in action at the World Junior Championships are: Lesibe Dikgale (400m hurdles), Zattu Hlongwane (4x100m relay), Tumi Ramokgopa (100m hurdles/400m hurdles/4x400m relay), Carise van Rooyen (800m) and Zanté van der Merwe (4x400m relay).
