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Clarence Munyai can pinpoint the exact moment his athletics dream was born.
Aged just 14 at the time the South African schoolboy recalls a teacher showing the teenager a replay of Usain Bolt competing at the London 2012 Olympics. Utterly captivated by the Jamaican sprint superstar he immediately made a vow.
“I told myself that, one day, I’m going to go to the Olympics,” he recalls.
Remarkably, just four years later, Munyai achieved his dream – competing in the heats of the 200m at the Rio Olympics – that same event where Bolt would go on to claim a hat-trick of Olympic titles.
Yet that is far from the end of the story. Three years on from his first senior global experience, the South African is maturing nicely. Last year a show-stopping time of 19.69 at the South African Championships aroused the attention of the global track and field community and the Pretoria-based athlete approaches the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 optimistic of a good display.
Born and raised one of five siblings in the suburb of Muldersdrift about 45 minutes from the Johannesburg CBD, sport was always an important part of the Munyai’s life and that of his identical twin brother, Terrence.
Barely training at the time he knew he had much untapped potential and sought out the coaching help of Hennie Kriel via Facebook. The South African coach agreed to take on the precocious talent however, to work with Kriel required that the then 16-year-old athlete would have to relocate 65km from Johannesburg to Pretoria.
Adapting to life training most days was not easy but in 2015 – aged 17 at the time – he ran an eye-catching 200m PB of 20.77 in Pretoria. The next year he blasted to a lifetime best of 20.36 in Germiston to win the national U20 title and secure selection for the World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz.
Clarence Munyai can pinpoint the exact moment his athletics dream was born.
Aged just 14 at the time the South African schoolboy recalls a teacher showing the teenager a replay of Usain Bolt competing at the London 2012 Olympics. Utterly captivated by the Jamaican sprint superstar he immediately made a vow.
“I told myself that, one day, I’m going to go to the Olympics,” he recalls.
Remarkably, just four years later, Munyai achieved his dream – competing in the heats of the 200m at the Rio Olympics – that same event where Bolt would go on to claim a hat-trick of Olympic titles.
Yet that is far from the end of the story. Three years on from his first senior global experience, the South African is maturing nicely. Last year a show-stopping time of 19.69 at the South African Championships aroused the attention of the global track and field community and the Pretoria-based athlete approaches the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 optimistic of a good display.
Born and raised one of five siblings in the suburb of Muldersdrift about 45 minutes from the Johannesburg CBD, sport was always an important part of the Munyai’s life and that of his identical twin brother, Terrence.
Barely training at the time he knew he had much untapped potential and sought out the coaching help of Hennie Kriel via Facebook. The South African coach agreed to take on the precocious talent however, to work with Kriel required that the then 16-year-old athlete would have to relocate 65km from Johannesburg to Pretoria.
Adapting to life training most days was not easy but in 2015 – aged 17 at the time – he ran an eye-catching 200m PB of 20.77 in Pretoria. The next year he blasted to a lifetime best of 20.36 in Germiston to win the national U20 title and secure selection for the World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz.
