Zakithi Nene bothered by SA's 400m relay team's absence from World Champs

The Championships commence in Budapest, Hungary from 19-27 August, with Team SA sending a strong contingent made up of medal hopefuls.

With world 400m record-holder Wayde van Niekerk, U20 world 400m record-holder Lythe Pillay, and Nene among those set to compete in the individual events, the latter believes there was an even stronger prospect of securing a medal in the relay.

"I'm not going to lie, it's actually very disappointing, given the times that the guys have run this year, I think this is probably the strongest 400m group we've ever had," said Nene.

"So, not being able to field a team at Worlds [Champs] is very disappointing, we were given an opportunity to try and qualify, but I think we just left it rather too late and the team assembled on the day obviously just wasn't the strongest to try and qualify."

SA will have two relay teams in the 4x100m and 4x200m events at the global championships.

Nene believes the relay culture required for qualification and successful competition against other prominent athletics nations is lacking in South Africa, and encourages fellow athletes to cultivate such a culture to foster its efficacy.

"But I mean, we also just need to try and build on the relay culture, which we don't have here in South Africa, so once we start getting that going, we can definitely have something going on for us come next year for World Relays and Olympics," he added.

"So, I'm really disappointed because, if you're talking about medal chances as well, I think, looking at head-to-head with athletes from other countries, we're by far somewhat better most other countries that have actually medalled.

"Looking at the Polish guys, they probably have like one guy running 44s, but they're somehow able to get it on relay races to actually finish on the podium, so I feel like we just need to build on our relay culture because we've got talented individuals and so much we can achieve with relays."