Clarence Munyai on his career path, competing at Rio Olympics as a teenager and hopes for African Sprinting

Deji Ogeyingbo wrote this piece on South African sprinter Clarence Munyai. There is both a text interview and an audio interview below! Please enjoy!

Clarence Munyai is on his career path, competing at Rio Olympics as a teenager, and hopes for African Sprinting

South Africa’s Olympic sprinter Clarence Munyai had a very modest 2022 season as he picked up a Bronze at the African Championships while also competing at the World Championships. With so many highs and lows in his career, the 24-year-Old still has big dreams for the future.

Two-time Olympian Munyai talks about his love for the sport, and how he started out as a kid while giving an insight into what he thinks the governing body needs to grow the sport.

RunBlogRun: How was your upbringing in South Africa? 

Clarence Munyai: I grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa. It’s the capital, and my love for athletics comes a long way. I’m sure in most countries, the first thing you do as a child I think, is athletics. I used to love all sports at school. In primary school, I played cricket and soccer but I was just a bit better at running. That was where my passion for running started. I had a teacher in High School named Billy who was the first person that believed in my abilities. He was the one that actually got me to do athletics quite properly, and I always allude to my success to him and I thank him for where I am today.

RunBlogRun: What made you make that decision to pick athletics amongst other popular sports in South Africa?

Clarence Munyai: When I was younger, I wasn’t pretty special at running. I didn’t win any major medals at provincials or anything like that. I was just better at it than the other sports that I played. In the early stages, I used to train to play rugby, which is the biggest sport in South Africa, and obviously, as a young person, I did want to take rugby professionally. However, when I went to some national athletics events without any training, I managed to get a bronze at these meets at an early age. My coach then advised me to take the sport seriously knowing fully well that if I trained well for it, I could be a world-beater. It was then that he planted the seed in my head about my potential and I decided to take the sport seriously.

RunBlogRun: What age was this and at what point did you envisage yourself doing something special in athletics?

Clarence Munyai: I began to take athletics…