Mlenga on edge but ready to replace Walaza in Tokyo

Retshidisitswe Mlenga says he is ready in case he has to replace one of SA’s three 100m sprint stars in the heats at the world championships in Tokyo on Saturday, but admits it’s a daunting prospect.

“I haven’t run a 100m on a world stage like that, so when I think about it, already I’m freaking out, but I’m trying to enjoy the process,” said the 25-year-old, who earlier this year became the 10th South African to break 10sec over 100m. 

Mlenga’s participation in the 100m depends on the fitness of the three men guaranteed lanes in the heats — Akani Simbine, Bayanda Walaza and Gift Leotlela. Nations can enter a maximum of three athletes in each event at the championships. 

But there has been uncertainty about the fitness of Walaza, who pulled up with a hamstring injury running the 100m at the final Diamond League in Zurich in August. While the athlete’s agent issued a statement saying he would be ready to compete, Athletics SA have responded saying the sprinter needs to pass their fitness test.

Walaza is already in Tokyo, but so far there has been no official confirmation either way.

“We haven’t had any indications,” Mlenga said on Wednesday before flying to Tokyo. “For now we’re just preparing for anything that happens.

“My coach is like, ‘you know, we should just focus on training’. If anything happens, we are ready. We just don’t want to jinx anybody, we just hope everybody is ready to run,” added the business management student at the University of Johannesburg, the 200m champion at the 2017 U-18 world championships in Nairobi. 

Competition rules require all three 100m runners to compete in the 4x100m relay, which means that if Walaza is fit, Mlenga is up against at least four potential candidates for one leg in the relay.

They include two members of the SA team that won Olympic silver at Paris 2024, Shaun Maswanganyi and Bradley Nkoana, as well as 200m star Sinesipho Dambile, who was part of the outfit that took gold at the World Relays in China earlier in 2025.

Maswanganyi, who competed in the 100m and 200m at the Paris Olympics, missed out on qualifying for an individual event in Tokyo.

But he said he was back on track after getting off to a slow start this season.

“I had two injuries in the beginning of the season, I had a hamstring tear and a quad tear, both grade twos.

“And when I recovered from that I ended up finding out that I had a few health complications regarding hormone imbalances and so forth, so I ended up having to consult an endocrinologist.

“It was weird opening my season with a 10.2, I never had that before,” said the 24-year-old, who still trains with Carl Lewis in Houston.

“I started shaping up towards the end of the season, but it was a bit unfortunate that I wasn’t able to qualify my individual events.”

But he is eager to contribute to the relay. “I think I can still get into the relay. I believe in my abilities to be able to run all the legs in the relay and my experience.”

In 2017 Mlenga also lifted the 100m silver and mixed 4x400m bronze at the global age-group showpiece. 

He no longer does the 400m. “Even the 200m now for me feels hard,” he said with a smile. “But I’m trying to focus on it for next year.

“It’s just that I can’t control my bend, so I’m trying to fix that. If my 200m can be fast, my 100m definitely can be faster,” he said.