ATHLETICS NEWS - "Are you still running?" was the question last year that got Henricho Bruintjies (a former South African 100m record-holder) to have a rethink on how his athletics career was playing out.
Next month during the Gauteng North Championships it will be a changed Bruintjies (Tuks-Puma) who lines up to race the 100 metres. He has a definite goal. It is to prove he is still one of South Africa's best sprinters and that he has what it takes to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The Tuks-Puma sprinter admits the suggestion that he might be a has-been hit a nerve. He thought he was doing OK. After all in 2018 during the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, he had won silver in the 100 metres and was part of the 4x100m relay team which finished second.
Granted, it has been a few years since he ran the times he knew were capable of. It was not due to a lack of trying. For him, it had to do with being injured at crucial times.
According to Bruintjies, once he thought about the essence of what was asked, he realised that he was in a comfort zone.
"I was training, but it was more a case of going through the motions. I lacked motivation. The words "are you still running" forced me to face up to reality. I have dreams, but I realised I was never going to fulfil any if I kept continuing on the path I was.
