Swart establishes herself as one of SA’s best female 800m runners

Charné Swart established herself on Monday night during the Cape Milers Club/Endurocad WA Challenge Meeting in Cape Town as one of South Africa's best female 800-metre athletes by running 2:00.71.

The Tuks athlete is now one of the six fastest South African female athletes in the 800 metres.

Since 1983, only Caster Semenya, Prudence Sekgodiso, Zelda Pretorius, Ilze Wicksell, and Erannéé van Zyl have been faster.

Pretorius is interestingly the only athlete never to have run in the colours of Tuks.

Semenya, Sekgodiso, and Swart are the only three athletes who have clocked times faster than 2:01.00 since 1992.

So, it is no surprise that Swart's performance is rated as one of the six best of the WA Challenge Meetings.

Ryan Mphahele, who won the 1 500 metres last night in 3:33.52, was the top performer.

Botswana's Oratile Nowe won the women's 800-metres in 1:59.69.

The Tuks medical student's favourite pastime is challenging the stopwatch over 800 metres.

Judging by her results over the last five years, she is winning the battle against the clock.

EYES ON PARIS

In 2020, her best time in the two-lap race was 2:13.96.

This season, from February to April, Swart has improved her personal best time by 1.56s.

If she could have her way, she would be faster in the next four weeks.

The South African champion's goal is to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games, which means she must be another 1.3 seconds faster.

The qualification standard is 1:59.30. It will be tough, but Swart is up to the challenge.

She has so far won six of the eight 800-metre races she has competed in and finished second twice. Swart ascribes her success to being more confident every time she races.

"I have matured over the last year as a runner. I can handle any race that comes my way, knowing what to do when. I must thank my coach 'Tannie Ilze (Wicksell)'.

""My aim is undoubtedly to run a sub-2-second race. But I am not obsessed with it; it will happen when it happens. The secret is an even split over the two laps. My perfect race would be to run 58 seconds and then 59 seconds. But for now, it is back to basics, doing a bit of base training before I start competing again.”

Swart's training partner, Michaela Oosthuizen, was fourth last night, running 2:04.85 at the UWC track.

Tuks's James Seeliger won the 400 metres, clocking 47.84s. Carmie Prinsloo (Tuks) finished third in the 3000 metres (9:25.18). Danielle Verster won in 9:16.56.