South Africa
2019
Two years after three world titles, South Africa left a World Championships with nothing — a knee, a courtroom and an 8.28 apart. The 2019 season, and the relay that turned its worst week into the start of something.
South Africa took 27 athletes to the Doha 2019 World Championships and won no medals — two years after finishing third in the world with three golds in London. None of the three champions lost a final: van Niekerk never made it, Semenya was ruled out of her event, and Manyonga finished fourth.
This is the whole season: the fourth places of Doha, the three roads that led there, the medals the team did win in Yokohama, Rabat and Naples — and the adidas South Africa team kit of that year, the last before Puma, two pieces of which are in this archive.
Part of our Season Series — one year at a time. The full national story is in The History of Athletics in South Africa. Jump to the 2019 kit or browse the collection.
- The championships
- World Championships, Doha, 27 Sep – 6 Oct 2019 — 27 athletes, 19 events
- The result
- 0 medals — after 6 (3 gold) and third place in London 2017
- The eternal fourth
- Simbine: 4th in the 100 m final with 9.93 (SB) — he was 4th at the next two Olympics too
- The long jump
- Manyonga 4th (8.28) · Samaai 5th (8.23) — two in the top five, no medal
- The record
- 4×100 relay: 37.65, African record, in the heats — then 5th in the final
- The absentees
- Van Niekerk (knee, out since Oct 2017) · Semenya (DSD regulations, from 8 May 2019)
- The medals of 2019
- World Relays 4×200 silver · 17 at the African Games · 11 at the Universiade
- The epilogue
- Paris 2024: the relay runs 37.57 — new AR — and takes Olympic silver
The Zero in Doha
South Africa sent 27 athletes to the World Championships in Doha in the autumn of 2019 — 22 men and five women, entered in 19 events — and came home with nothing. Two years earlier, in London, the same team had finished third in the medal table with six medals, three of them gold. The fall from three golds to zero is the story of this season, and almost none of it happened in Doha itself.
What the team delivered in Qatar was a string of fourth and fifth places that read like a punishment. Akani Simbine ran 9.93 — a season's best, in a world final — and finished fourth in the 100 metres. Luvo Manyonga, the defending champion, was fourth in the long jump at 8.28, with Ruswahl Samaai fifth at 8.23. The 4×100 relay of Thando Dlodlo, Simon Magakwe, Clarence Munyai and Simbine ran an African record 37.65 in the heats and then finished fifth in the final in 37.73. Stephen Mokoka was fifth in the midnight marathon in 2:11:09. Four events, four near-misses, no metal.
The rest of the entry went out earlier: Rikenette Steenkamp ran a seasonal best 12.97 in the 100 m hurdles semifinals, Munyai and Anaso Jobodwana fell in the 200 m semis, and Dominique Scott-Efurd, the only woman to reach a final, placed 15th in the 5000 m.
Three Crowns, Three Fates
To understand the zero you have to look at who was not there. South Africa's three London 2017 world champions — Wayde van Niekerk, Caster Semenya and Luvo Manyonga — arrived at 2019 on three different roads, and only one of them made it to a Doha runway.
The knee — ACL and both menisci, torn in a charity touch rugby game in October 2017 — kept the world record holder out of Doha entirely.
Unbeaten over 800 m since September 2015 — 30 straight wins — she was ruled out of her event by the DSD regulations that took effect on 8 May 2019.
The defending champion jumped 8.28 and finished fourth — with Ruswahl Samaai fifth at 8.23, two South Africans in the top five without a medal.
Hover or tab onto a column for the detail of each 2017 champion's 2019.
The three champions — table view
| Athlete | London 2017 | Doha 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Wayde van Niekerk | Gold · 400 m | Did not compete — knee injury (Oct 2017) |
| Caster Semenya | Gold · 800 m | Ruled out of the 800 m — DSD regulations (8 May 2019) |
| Luvo Manyonga | Gold · long jump (8.48) | 4th — 8.28 |
| 4×100 m relay | — | African record 37.65 in heats · 5th in final · Olympic silver & 37.57 AR followed in Paris 2024 |
Van Niekerk's absence was the oldest wound. The 400 m world record holder tore the ACL and both menisci in his right knee in a charity touch rugby game in Cape Town in October 2017, two months after his London double of gold and silver. His withdrawal from Doha was confirmed on 2 September 2019, after a bone bruise on the same knee cost him more weeks of preparation. He would not race a major championship again until the Tokyo Olympics.
Semenya's 2019 was a court calendar with races in between. On 1 May the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed her challenge to World Athletics' DSD regulations; on 3 May she won the Diamond League 800 m in Doha in 1:54.99 — her 30th consecutive win over the distance since September 2015; on 8 May the regulations took effect. A Swiss Federal Supreme Court order suspended them for her in June, long enough to win the Prefontaine Classic 800 m in 1:55.70 on 30 June, and was reversed at the end of July. She could not defend her world title. Her South African 800 m record of 1:54.25, set in Paris in 2018, still stands in 2026.
The Medals of Everywhere Else
The season did produce medals — just not at the Worlds. At the World Relays in Yokohama in May, South Africa took silver in the 4×200 m in 1:20.42, with Simbine running the anchor leg behind the United States. At the African Games in Rabat in August the athletics team collected 17 medals, though only one gold — Mpho Links in the high jump — and at the summer Universiade in Naples the student team added 11 more, with Milton Kekana winning the 10,000 m.
On the circuit, the two men who would finish fourth in Doha both won in London in July: Simbine took the Anniversary Games 100 m in 9.93 and Manyonga the long jump in 8.37, his best of the year. The depth chart said South Africa belonged among the sprint powers; the championship said not yet.
From this season · in the archiveAdidas South Africa Pro Elite 2019 Running CapThe matching team running cap from the same 2019 allocation — the kind of piece that gets issued to a squad and almost never surfaces again.120,00 €View piece →The epilogue took five years to arrive, and it is the reason this season reads differently now. The relay project that set the African record in the Doha heats kept going — through a fourth place in Tokyo — until Paris 2024, where Bayanda Walaza, Shaun Maswanganyi, Bradley Nkoana and Simbine ran 37.57, broke the Doha-era record, and won Olympic silver. Simbine, fourth in the world in 2019 and fourth at two Olympics, finally had a global medal.
The Adidas South Africa Kit
The two South African pieces in this archive are both labelled 2019 and both adidas: a women's crop top and a running cap, issued as South Africa team apparel in the national green and gold. We date and describe them from the garments themselves. What the public record adds is timing: Puma was announced as Athletics South Africa's new kit sponsor in February 2020 and dressed the team from that April — which makes 2019 the closing season of the pre-Puma era, and pieces like these the last of their line.
adidas's footprint in South African athletics is easiest to see on its athletes: the brand has long dressed Wayde van Niekerk and Akani Simbine individually. We have not found public documentation of the federation's own supplier for the 2019 season, so we let the labels speak — team-spec adidas apparel, South Africa lettering, 2019 issue.
Adidas South Africa 2019 · in the archiveAdidas South Africa Pro Elite 2019 Women Crop TopWomen's team crop top from the South African squad's 2019 allocation — green and gold, adidas athlete issue, from the last season before the federation moved to Puma.120,00 €View piece →The wider story of the team these pieces belong to — from Reggie Walker in 1908 through the isolation years to the Paris relay silver — is told in our history of athletics in South Africa.
South Africa 2019
Two pieces from the South African team's 2019 season — a women's crop top and a running cap, both adidas team issue in green and gold, from the final season before the federation switched to Puma. Small-squad team kit surfaces rarely; a dated pair like this even less.
How did South Africa do at the 2019 World Championships in Doha?
No medals — 27 athletes in 19 events, and a set of agonising placings: Akani Simbine fourth in the 100 m (9.93), Luvo Manyonga fourth and Ruswahl Samaai fifth in the long jump, the 4×100 relay fifth after an African record 37.65 in the heats, and Stephen Mokoka fifth in the marathon. Two years earlier South Africa had won six medals, three of them gold.
Why did Wayde van Niekerk miss Doha 2019?
The knee injury he suffered in a charity touch rugby game in Cape Town in October 2017 — a torn ACL and both menisci. A bone bruise on the same knee interrupted his 2019 comeback and his withdrawal was confirmed on 2 September 2019. His 400 m world record of 43.03 from Rio 2016 still stands in 2026.
Why could Caster Semenya not defend her 800 m world title in 2019?
On 1 May 2019 the Court of Arbitration for Sport dismissed her challenge to the DSD regulations, which took effect on 8 May. A Swiss court order briefly suspended them for her in June and July — she won the Prefontaine Classic 800 m in that window, her 31st consecutive win — but the suspension was reversed and she could not run in Doha. Her South African record of 1:54.25 still stands.
Did South Africa win anything in athletics in 2019?
Yes: silver in the 4×200 m at the World Relays in Yokohama (1:20.42), 17 athletics medals at the African Games in Rabat — gold for high jumper Mpho Links — and 11 medals at the Naples Universiade. Simbine and Manyonga also both won at the London Diamond League meeting.
What happened to the Doha 2019 relay team?
The project became the redemption story of South African sprinting: at Paris 2024, Bayanda Walaza, Shaun Maswanganyi, Bradley Nkoana and Akani Simbine ran 37.57 — a new African record, faster than the 37.65 set in the Doha heats — and won Olympic silver, Simbine's first global medal.
What kit did South Africa wear in 2019?
The pieces in our archive are adidas South Africa team apparel labelled 2019, in the national green and gold — a women's crop top and a running cap, both in the South Africa collection. Puma took over as Athletics South Africa's kit sponsor from April 2020, which makes 2019 the last season of the pre-Puma era.
Sources and References
- Wikipedia — South Africa at the 2019 World Athletics Championships — the squad of 27, and every Doha result quoted: Simbine, Manyonga, Samaai, Mokoka, Scott-Efurd, Steenkamp
- Wikipedia — 2019 World Championships, men’s 4×100 m relay — the 37.65 African record in the heats and the fifth place in the final
- CBC Sports — van Niekerk to miss the Worlds — the withdrawal of 2 September 2019 and the knee history from October 2017
- Sky Sports — the CAS ruling of 1 May 2019 — the dismissal of the challenge to the DSD regulations
- CBC Sports — Semenya wins the Prefontaine 800 m — the 1:55.70 of 30 June 2019, inside the window of the Swiss suspension
- World Athletics — World Relays Yokohama 2019, day 2 — the 4×200 m silver in 1:20.42
- Wikipedia — South Africa at the 2019 African Games — the 17 athletics medals in Rabat and Mpho Links’s gold
- Olympics.com — Paris 2024 men’s 4×100 final — the silver of Walaza, Maswanganyi, Nkoana and Simbine in 37.57
- ESPN — Puma announced as ASA kit sponsor — Puma dressing the team from April 2020 — the close of the pre-Puma era