South African Olympic Silver Medalist Bayanda Walaza Receives Hero - Source: Getty — Bayanda Walaza with his Olympic silver medal from the Paris Olympics [Image Source: Getty]

Who is Bayanda Walaza? All about the Junior sprint king who won the 100m and 200m at the World Athletics U20 Championships 2024

Modified Aug 31, 2024 05:04 GMT

South African sprinter Bayanda Walaza has created history by winning the gold medal in both the 100m and the 200m events at the World Athletics U20 Championships 2024 currently underway in Lima.

Walaza clocked 20.52 seconds to win the top honors in the 200m event. He was closely followed by Australian sprinting sensation Gout Gout, who achieved a personal best of 20.60. British sprinter Jake Odey-Jordan managed 20.81 seconds to win the bronze medal.

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Bayanda Walaza won the gold medal in the 100m event, with a timing of 10.19 seconds. With this victory, the 18-year-old achieved several historical milestones. For the first time in the history of the Under 20 World Championships, a single country has won all three sprinting titles, including the 100m, the 200m, and the 400m, with Udeme Okon from South Africa having won the gold medal in the 400m event previously.

Apart from that, Walaza, who also won a silver medal at the Paris Olympics 2024, became only the fourth sprinter in the world to have achieved a 'golden double' at the Under 20 World Championships. Ato Boldon from Trinidad and Tobago, Francis Obikwelu from Nigeria, and Christian Malcolm from Great Britain have previously held the 100m and 200m titles simultaneously.

Boldon achieved this honor in the 1992 edition, Obikwelu in 1996, and Christian Malcolm did it in the 1998 edition.

Bayanda Walaza's early life

Bayanda Walaza at a felicitation ceremony with his mother Tholiwe Walaza [Image Source: Getty]

Bayanda Walaza was born on 9 February 2006 in the Katlehong locality of Ekurhuleni, in the Gauteng region of Johannesburg, South Africa. He was barely ten years old when he lost his father in a violent confrontation. This scarred Walaza for life, as later revealed by his mother, Tholiwe. In an interview with IOL Sport, his mother mentioned:

"He lost his father in a violent fight, when his dad got shot. He experienced all that. After that it was tough. As a mother I had to do something. I went for counselling and for social workers to help. After we buried his father, he was going for counseling."

Despite the personal loss, Tholiwe Walaza ensured her son's education was not compromised, and it was during his time as a student at the Hoerskool Vorentoe in Katlehong that he picked up athletics.

Bayanda Walaza's Achievements

Bayanda Walaza took up athletics professionally in early 2022 when he was just 16 years old. He clocked 11 seconds in the 100m at an athletic meet in Potchefstroom and 22.62 seconds in the 200m in Pretoria.

However, Walaza rose quickly through the ranks, winning a bronze medal in the 100m race held at the African Under-18 Championships held in April 2023 in Ndola, Zambia.

By 2024, Bayanda Walaza became an emerging sprinting sensation, with a personal best of 10.13 seconds in 100m and 20.34 seconds in 200m events, both achieved at the South African Under 20 Championships held in Pretoria.

Bayanda Walaza's performance at the Paris Olympics

Bayanda Walaza along with his teammates at the podium for the Men's 4x100m relay event at Paris Olympics 2024 [Image Source: Getty]

With such an impressive profile, Bayanda Walaza made it to the men's 4x100 m relay team, which represented South Africa at the Paris Olympics 2024. Walaza ran the first leg of the race in both the heats and the finals, and his head start gave South Africa the much-needed edge in the heats. They clocked 37.94 seconds to storm into the finals, ranking second behind the American team, who had topped the heats.

However, when the USA got disqualified from the event during the baton exchange, South Africa pushed ahead, with Akani Simbine closely following Andre De Grasse of Canada in the anchor leg of the race. Simbine missed the gold medal by a whisker, but the silver medal won by South Africa was nothing less than historical.

It was not just South Africa's first Olympic medal in this discipline, but the first Olympic medal won by an African nation in this category since the Athens Olympics held in 2004.