The scene where the Mooi River winds around the Fanie du Toit sports fields is a well known one. Just below the High Performance Institute there is a stretch of about 100 m that serves as a hazardous no-fly zone to our feathered friends. Javelins fly here.
Another constant here is the NWU’s javelin guru, Terseus Liebenberg, and although the athletes next to him on the field differ, their excellent performances are a common denominator.
Jo-Ané van Dyk’s recent addition to the South African team that will participate in the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan from 23 July to 8 August makes her the fourth NWU javelin thrower to be honoured in this way.
Van Dyk follows in the footsteps of Sunette Viljoen, Justine Robbeson and Hardus Pienaar. Then one should also not fail to look at Marius Corbett. In the 1990s Corbett carved out a legacy few can match. All these athletes come from the ranks of the NWU and have or had Liebenberg as a coach.
This eminent coach cannot stop talking about his most recent Olympic find: “She is a gem. What a privilege to be able to work with an athlete like this. She is a champion javelin thrower and a champion in life.”
The growth medium is Liebenberg’s knowledge, the breeding ground is the NWU, but what is the secret behind the university’s evergreen javelin success? “Hard work,” he says without hesitating. “Strong trees grow slowly. They take time to mature. You must believe in your objectives and pursue them patiently.”
This is why Van Dyk’s (23) rise is so remarkable. “She is only at the start of her career. A wonderful world of excellence awaits her.”
Enough has been written about Sunette Viljoen to make a pop star jealous. Silver at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016, and fourth place in London in 2012. Double Common Wealth Games champion. Five times African champion. One simply cannot name every meeting, every bronze or silver medal. You can hold a reader’s attention only for so long.
Although Viljoen’s contemporary, Justine Robbeson, walked in the shadow of a giant, she also basked in the sun regularly. In 2006 she was the Africa champion and twice came out tops in the All Africa Championship. In 2008 her name was written next to the Africa record before Viljoen surpassed it a year later. This was a sad story: “At the Games in London Justine was in bed with flu for three days. I was with her in the stadium when she was trying to qualify for the finals when she told me she was struggling to breathe. She missed the qualifying distance by a few centimetres.” Robbeson ended thirteenth – and only the first twelve qualified for the finals.
The town of Bambous on Mauritius looks out across the Indian Ocean to the western horizon in the direction of Madagascar. This is where Hardus Pienaar won the Africa Championship for the third time in 2006. A World Junior Championship and an infinite string of wonderful performances made Pienaar, who hails from Rustenburg, a star. However, Olympic glory evaded him, and he ended fourteenth at the 2004 Games in Athens.
Corbett is the proverbial godfather of the new millennium of stars. In addition, he is simply outstanding. As a first-year student at the Veritas men’s residence in 1994, he won the Junior World Championship in Portugal, he improved the SA under 20 record on three occasions, and in 1997 in Greece, he became the first track-and-field world champion with a new SA record of 88,40 m. He won the World University Games title in 1997 and the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia in 1998. His enormous throw in Kuala Lumpur on 21 September was measured at 88,75 m, and this record still stands. After he laid down his javelin, Marius picked up a rugby ball and played for the Leopards in the Curry Cup First League. Liebenberg went to watch Corbett making his opponents eat dust at Olën Park: “He was a wild player!”.
These are only a handful of numerous stars. May the strong trees grow for a long time.
