Self made Smit wins hammer gold
17 July 2002 - South Africa’s Werner Smit outclassed the whole World Junior Championships hammer field with an impressive of 76.43m. He so much dominated tonight’s final that no less than four of his five legal throws bettered the performance of second finisher Al Mohamed Al-Zinkawi (KUW) who took silver with 73.69m. “I am very happy that I won the gold medal today. I felt very good and had a great contest.”
The youngest of four brothers, Smit had won silver at last year’s World Youth Championships in Debrecen and had set higher goals for himself this year. With an opening mark of 74.63 which was accompanied by a loud approval of the local crowd, Smit had the medal in his pocket but did not lose concentration. His series of 76.43, 73.74, 73.39 and 76.03 after a second round foul was maybe even more than what he expected. “I prepared for this competition training twice a week. I alternate every throwing session with either a weight lifting session or running session.” But surprisingly for an 18-year old who only came to the sport four years ago, he doesn’t have a coach.
“I train by myself. I live 120 kilometres away from the nearest coach and it would be too expensive for me to travel so often.” So the question is how does such a young athlete prepare his training programmes in such a technical and demanding discipline? “Oh, I do get advices from someone. Chris Harmse gives me advices and tells me what to do every now and then. That is where I learn what is best for my preparation.”
With a smile on his face and a South African flag on his shoulders, Smit was not shy in explaining his main goals for the future. “This World Junior Championships medal is very important to me. I have been preparing hard for it. I will now aim at qualifying for the World Championships in Paris next year and obviously the 2004 Olympics.” Smit elected the hammer as his favourite event after competing in the shot put and the discus throw.
“When I started I used to do all three events. But then Chris Harmse told me that the hammer would be the best discipline for me and from then on I concentrate on it.”
And it certainly paid off for this big guy from Cape Town who will wait to be back home in South Africa to celebrate his gold medal with his three elder brothers.
