Teenagers Bradley Nkoana and Bayanda Walaza shine in their Olympic debut

The 18-year-old Walaza and 19-year-old Nkoana shone on a grand stage, winning the silver medal in the 4x100m relay alongside star sprinter Akani Simbine and America-based athlete Shaun Maswanganyi at Stade de France on Friday night. 

South Africa set a new African record with a time of 37.57 seconds, finishing just behind Canada, which clocked 37.50 seconds, while Great Britain took third place with 37.61 seconds.

This has been an unforgettable experience for the two teenagers, and South African athletics is clearly in good hands with their talent.  

"I don't know how I'm feeling but yeah it's an awesome feeling I don't wanna lie, like this is special and it's rare, this thing is rare. Being there is not easy but we managed to come back with that and imagine I'm still at school and I just did this,” Walaza said.

“So, I'll also say this is a motivation to every kid out there that this is impossible, age doesn't matter if you keep on pushing you're gonna go where you want to be.

“Also, just to say I'm not done, I still have World Juniors to go or are we done? Just not finished, we are still gonna go for World Juniors and we're still gonna dominate the way we're dominating here."

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Nkoana dedicated his silver medal to his grandmother in Tshwane for her unwavering support.

He is also heading back to the University of North West in Potchefstroom to continue his studies as an Olympic silver medallist.

"I would like to thank God, my grandmother, I made it in Paris! I would like to thank my coach, the federation for making this possible, me and Bayanda we're young and we got exposed to such a big stage, we know what's ahead of us and we just need to stay composed, prepare for what's next,” Nkoana said.

“We still have World Juniors, so we just need to keep composed, get ready for that, prepare for that.”