MICHAEL FINCH, Seville | Saturday 11.00am.
DESPITE being advised by the team doctor to withdraw from the World Athletics championships, South Africa’s only world number one in athletics, Llewellyn Herbert, was putting on a brave face on Friday.
With just three days left before his opening 400m hurdles heat at Seville’s giant Olympic stadium, the 22-year-old is still battling with a left thigh injury that has all but scuppered his season.
So serious is the problem, that team leader Stix Stiglingh admitted to the Mail and Guardian that team doctor, Harold Adams, had advised Herbert not to compete.
“Look he knows his body better than we do, but yes, the doctor did say that it would be better if he did not compete,” Stiglingh said.
Herbert suffered the injury a month ago, but despite treatment and a long lay-off, the problem refuses to go away.
“There’s a lot of swelling in the area and it’s very painful, especially when he runs,” Adams said.
Typically Herbert was playing down the seriousness of the situation and remained adamant that he was aiming at adding the gold medal to the silver he won at the last world championships in Athens in 1997.
“You just watch me,” the Bethal-born Pretoria Technikon student said. “I’m not just looking at getting into the final, I’m looking to win the final.”
Foolishness or confidence? The answer will be known in three days time.
While Herbert remains the only injury worry of the team in Seville, the whereabouts, and state of fitness of polevaulter Okkert Brits, remain a mystery.
The African record holder has been holing out in Germany, clearly eager to steer clear of any media hype for as long as possible, but no-one in the South African camp knew about his fitness levels.
“He is on his way,” manager, James Mokoka, said.
Adams admitted that he didn’t know much about the injury-plagued Brits’ state of health, but conceeded that there was nothing much he could do.
“I haven’t seen Okkert for a long time, but hopefully when he gets here we’ll be able to check him out,” Adams said.
Another who ducked and dived away from media on Friday was hammerthrower, Chris Harmse — who will be the first South African to compete in the championships when he lines up in the qualifying heats of the event on Saturday.
Stiglingh admitted that a nervous Harmse had not been eager to attend Friday’s press conference and he had allowed him to return to the hotel.
“He’s quite a highly strung fellow, so I let him go back. While we were waiting for the bus, he was stalking around clearly not eager to get on,” Stiglingh said.
No doubt a place in the final will make the African record holder more talkative.