South African Olympic medalist Bayanda Walaza has declined scholarship offers from American universities, choosing instead to stay in his home country and continue working with his current coach.
The double under-20 world champion, fresh from winning gold in both the 100m and 200m events in Lima, Peru, is now focused on his academic future and upcoming matric preliminary exams.
At just 18, Walaza has made a significant impact in athletics, including a silver medal in the 4x100m relay at the Paris Olympic Games. However, he has chosen to remain under the guidance of his coach, Thabo “Coach T” Matebedi, despite interest from U.S. universities.
“I’m not changing coaches because that can lead to a lot of complications,” Walaza stated.
Known for his explosive starts, the sprinter’s unorthodox arm movements and head rocking in the final stages of his races have drawn attention from critics. Nonetheless, Walaza, a student at Curro Hazeldean in Pretoria, is focused on balancing his athletic career with his studies.
He begins his matric prelim exams with geography on Thursday, September 4, and has plans to pursue logistics at the University of Pretoria, reaffirming his decision to stay rooted in South Africa.
He said; “So it’s better to deal with the coach that is working for me because he made me get two gold medals. He made me get silver at the Olympics so why must I must leave him? I’ve got a lot of offers [from US colleges] like I think three or four varsities, but I told them: ‘Ja, I’ll stay here’.
“I’ve heard a lot of comments. So my coach told me, as long as it’s working for me, I might as well just stay doing it because if I change it, who might know? I might look nice running, but I might not be the winner that I am right now with this running style I have, so it’s better to work with what you have. Me and my coach are working on what we have. If my running style is like this, it’s better to make it effective than changing it.
“We had to work for the whole year to perfect that start, and it went perfect at the right time because I would say [until then] it was not going the way we wanted it. At Paris, that’s when it started working … I think that was also the reason I won because I was leaving them at the start.”
