Nagel
has it nailed
By IAAF Correspondent
14 February 2002 - The indoor season has traditionally brought new names to the forefront
of the sport—and this year is no different.
Except that Morne Nagel, the South African sprinter who has flown to joint top of the 60 metres world performance lists, has a silver medal from last summer’s World Championships in Edmonton.
Nagel was the lead man in the 4 x 100 metres sprint team that was beaten by just over half a second by the USA in the final, 37.96 to 38.47.
But since the indoor campaign has begun in full swing with the opening two meetings in the Energizer EuroSeries, Nagel has stamped his mark in his own right.
He was already sharing top spot in the world lists alongside Tim Montgomery after the pair had run 6.48 seconds in Dortmund at the start of February, the American being awarded the race, when he took that form to the four-meeting EuroSeries.
He won the opening Energizer event in Stockholm just over a week ago, confirmed his speed by making it two out of two in Ghent on Sunday and now heads to Birmingham this week as the clear leader of the pack.
So with a silver medal from Edmonton, is he that new?
“I suppose I am,” said Nagel, in his rich, distinctive South African tone. “But I don’t want to be one of those athletes who runs well indoors and then come the summer, he is not heard of again.”
Nagel’ s indoor form suggests that will not be the case. His speed over the 60m and the way his race is building up during these quick speed tests is proving a good foundation for the longer distances which await in the summer.
The Commonwealth Games, in Manchester, England, remain his big target on his road to discovery.
His mother was a high hurdler but because of the sporting ban that was placed on South Africa during the 70s and 80s, there were no openings for her to progress towards the Olympic stage if she had proved good enough.
“I suppose I get my speed from her,” added Nagel, 23, who was born in Veerening in the south of Johannesburg. “I always enjoyed running at school but did not think about it being a career. Now it has taken off, I am really enjoying it and know it is the right thing for me to do.
“If I did reach a higher level, I suppose in a way it could make up for what my mum could not achieve if she had reached that stage.
“I have been running professionally for three years now and want to keep building on what I have done. There is always room for new people on the scene, it is just a case of working hard to make further breakthroughs.”
His personal best for the 100m is 10.15s, a time he achieved last March, but he knows the effect of what this indoor season will bring.
“I look at someone like Maurice Greene and so much of what he has achieved has been through the power he has when he runs,” said Nagel. “It is an area of my running which I work hard on, in training, in races and I know the more power I have, the faster I can run.”
As this season is proving, with defeats of Frankie Fredericks, Brian Lewis, Jason Gardener and Mark Lewis-Francis under his belt.
But it could all have been so different for Nagel who now lives in Pretoria and quit studying orthopedics to put athletics first.
“I can always go back to my studies,” he said. “But athletics is about here and now. I did not want it to be too late.
“I have not been surprised by what has happened this winter because I have worked hard since Edmonton and we are now seeing the results.
“I am obviously looking towards Athens as a target to get it all right outdoors.”
Nagel was knocked out in the second round of the individual 100m in Edmonton but the South African team enhanced their growing reputation by taking silver in the sprint relay.
“That was great, a superb occasion for me and one I want more of,” he said.
He is managed by Finland’s Jukka Harkonen, who spotted him during one of his annual talent-searching trips to South Africa.
“Being fast can be so much about the mind,” said Harkonen. “You may have the speed but those who best use it get the best results.”
Nagel has the speed, he is working on the power and so far this season, he has been producing the best results of his career.
On Sunday, he faces Fredericks, Lewis-Francis, Gardener and Lewis again, along with Americans Coby Miller and Greg Saddler...or should that be, they face him?
