MATSHELANE MAMABOLO
MIRANDA Coetzee will take to the track for her 400m heats at the Paris Olympics today with a bit of a heavy heart. She might even shed a tear, disappointed that her biggest fan is missing out on it all.
“My dad passed on last year and I had to do it (qualify) for him. I was thinking of him when I was running (in the semi-final of the African Championships in Cameroon earlier in the year).
“I am so happy and I know he will be proud that I am going to the Olympics. He has been so supportive and it’s a pity he won’t be there to watch me.”
The disappointment of not having her father around to watch her perform on sport’s biggest stage notwithstanding, the Olympian from Magaliesberg is intent on having a memorable Olympic debut.
“I want to run a personal best and make it to the final, that’s my main goal,” said Coetzee, who boasts a 50.90 PB.
Though that’s her target, the two-time African champion says she’s not going to put herself under undue pressure by being married to specific goals and objectives.
“I think I am going to let my imagination go wild. I am not going to settle for anything because sometimes plans don’t go like you want them to. So I am just going to let go and let everything come by just giving it my best.”
To make it to the Olympics just five years after taking up athletics seriously is a major achievement and Coetzee is reasonably delighted to be a part of the spectacle.
“When I first started running (with the Royal Bafokeng Athletics club) in 2019, I said wanted qualify for the Olympics, but I was happy with the world rankings and I believed they would take me there.”
But she had a great run in defending her continental title in Cameroon to qualify automatically. It was touch and go, though.
“I ran well in the heats but the times were not showing on the electronics (score board) so I said in the semi-finals I have to hit it hard and when I saw that I had qualified I was so happy. But I was not sure because of the technical problems they had. But when I saw on the internet that I was the automatic qualifier I was so happy.”
She was not only happy that she had qualified for the Olympics, but happy too that she decided to take up running seriously.
“I ran in high school but then decided to take up netball. And I only returned to running after I broke my leg while playing netball. Throughout my career I have been training with boys and my coach puts me with them and that gets me to push myself harder. My coaches (Eugene Thipe and Ronnie Letlake) have been very supportive and they helped me get to this.”
It is the support of her father Johannes, though, that Coetzee will be wishing she had when she gets onto the blue track at a packed Stade de France for the defining moment of her short career.
“My dad supported me a lot and now that he is not here, sometimes I lose focus but I think of him and I know he would have wanted me to keep pushing.”