Born to fly: Q&A with Zazini
The We Fly Crew comprises some of South Africa’s best up-and-coming athletes, each of whom represents Nike’s view on running, and are poised to take over the streets of Jozi.
We got to have a quick chat with We Fly Crew member Zazini.
What inspired you to start running?
- Running is a God given talent that I discovered when I was younger and I realised that it’s the sport that is meant for me and I started doing it. Although I failed at the beginning due to lack of facilities, coaching and experience, things changed for the better the moment I moved to Pretoria.
What is you biggest dream goal?
- Of course, I guess every athletes dream is to take part in the Olympic games and compete there and sometimes there are different types of goals short and long term my short term is to qualify for next year’s world champs in Doha and come top three SA seniors and break records and long term is to be an Olympic champion.
How did you start running, especially since you’re from the township?
- As I said I feel like it’s a God given talent which I decided to use once I discovered it and fell in love with athletics and I disciplined myself with a lot of things in my life and focused on what I want.
Do you have proper Infrastructure at your community?
- No, we don’t, I feel like we are still lacking with that, but that is one of my dreams, to help fix everything that is broken in my community. I believe there are more of my peers who can do what I do, or even better, and all they need is the right infrastructure to help them better their talent and skill.
How do you keep motivating yourself?
- I tend to watch a lot of motivational videos and seeing my friends do well also encourages me to keep pushing.
Do you have support from your community and family?
- They are my number one fans. When I’m at home they treat me like a celebrity, they always celebrate my victories and confront me when I steer off, even when I lose they are still putting their full support behind me and I really appreciate that.
What keeps you going?
- What keeps me going is the fact that I don’t want to disappoint those who look up to me and those who support me and lastly to make my family proud.
What are your training tips?
- Enjoy each race as if it were your big one and give every race all you’ve got.
Who inspires you in the running world currently?
- When I was younger it was Felix Sanchez but now and its LJ van Zyl whom competed against, I would also say Luvo Mayonga and Caster Semenya.
What is your biggest dream with your career? And how are you going to achieve it?
- It’s to use the talent I have and win much as possible and break the World Records.
