The young sprinter out of the Eastern Cape is already a sensation. But she’s just getting started
Chances are, you’ll be hearing more about the Eastern Cape village of Ngcobo in the not-too distant future. Halfway between Queenstown to the west and Mthatha in the east, Ngcobo is the home of the 18-year-old sprint sensation, Aviwe Jingqi, a place where she realised from a young age that no matter whether she was racing up or down the hills, she always came first.
It wasn’t important whether she was running against just girls or boys and girls, she always passed the informal finish way ahead of the others. It was fun winning races but it also made her wonder if she didn’t perhaps possess some precious gift that set her apart, a gift that would take her away from Ngcobo to places those against whom she raced could only dream about.
Sprinting up and down Ngcobo’s hills provided Jingqi with less of an early challenge than her age. Although she could run fast, she was still considered too young for pretty much everything; it irked her to be told that she couldn’t race in such-and-such an event because of her age. Hadn’t she demonstrated that ability in sprints down the hill? Hadn’t she shown up all comers? Wasn’t it about time she was allowed to do what everyone in Ngcobo knew she was good at?
Even at the inter-district championships in 2015 — championships she won hands down — she was prevented from going to the provincial finals because of her age. That was the year, she was still only 10, mind you, in which she won the 80m dash to set local tongues wagging. No one was asking her for a selfie just yet but that wasn’t far away.
“Everyone where I came from started noticing that I have talent at the inter-districts,” said Jingqi. “That’s where I became known by most schools and most teachers for what I could do and when I started competing seriously in competitions in my area.”
Two years later, another key moment in the expanding Jingqi resume. In 2017 she remembers sitting down in front of the television and seeing the Ivorian sprinter, Marie-Josée Ta Lou competing in a 100m event in a Diamond League meeting.
“That’s when I started falling in love with the sport,” she said. “Because of where I come from I never really thought that I’d be on television but as the years went by I did hope that maybe I’d be one of those people who I once watched on television when I was much younger.”
As she grew, so Jingqi began to be exposed to other gifted sprinters of her generation. She was a big fish in the small Ngcobo pool but it was inevitable that she began to compete against those who didn’t take her hill-climbing ability and casual assumptions for granted.
In 2019, she raced against the long-legged Precious Molepo at the SA Schools’ Championships in Gqeberha in the 400m. “She showed me flames in that race,” says Jingqi, with a note of pleasure in her voice, “because she came first and I was back in third.”
The tussles between the two young athletes have since settled down as each finds her preferred distance. When the former sprinter, Paul Gorries, became Jingqi’s coach two years ago he quickly realised that 400m was not his protégés best event. “Look, she’s always been a special talent, since day one when I met her,” said Gorries. “When I got to the [TuksSport High] School [where Jingqi is a grade 12 student] she was actually running 200 and 400.”
“When I looked at things I thought: ‘There’s no way that she’s a 200m and 400m athlete.’ Last year I converted her to 100 and the fact that she quickly ran 11.6 showed me a lot.”
It is in the 200m, however, that Jingqi has shot out the lights. After reaching the semi-finals of the World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi last August, in early April she renewed hostilities with Molepo in the girls under-18 event at the National Junior Championships.
In overcast conditions in Tshwane, Jingqi was drawn in lane five, with Molepo in lane six. Running in her distinctive white spikes, Jingqi was narrowly ahead of Molepo at the bend, a lead that increased by nearly 20m down the home straight as she showed Molepo “the flames”, blazing to the title in 23.03 and breaking Yvette de Klerk’s 40-year-old record in the process.
Despite the weather — and Jingqi’s apprehension because of the weather — it was a championships to write home about. Not only did she break De Klerk’s record (and avenge her defeat to Molepo in Gqeberha three years ago) but over the course of the championships broke the 200m record three times.
Despite a hamstring tear, which meant she was unable to compete in the National Senior Championships, the win at Tukkies in April has set her up nicely for the rest of the year. Gorries says that he’s hoping Jingqi will campaign in Europe this summer ahead of the World Junior Championships scheduled for Kali, Colombia, in August, where his charge is aiming high. “I’m hoping to be four or even three,” she says, “but I’m praying that I’m on the podium – that will be the only thing that really makes me happy.”
Prayer is a literal rather than metaphorical necessity for Jingqi. “If I don’t pray before racing, then many things don’t go well,” she says. “And also talking to coach Paul — if I don’t see him before a race my head is all over the place.”
Other than Gorries, Caster Semenya, for her perseverance and courage, was an early inspiration for Jingqi — as was her older brother, Vukile. She shared a bond with Vukile and they used to talk openly and all the time, but he died in a car accident while travelling from Ngcobo back to Cape Town in early January last year.
What are fast-becoming her signature white spikes are also important, but most important of all is her sense of self and the ambition that goes along with it. “I want to be one of the fastest females to ever be alive,” she says.
“I want to be one of those people that makes history, not only in South Africa but worldwide. I also want to keep on breaking records — you never know, maybe Flo-Jo’s [Florence Griffith Joyner] 100 metre record will be gone. I think I can really run faster after I’ve passed the age of 21.”
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