MARK ETHERIDGE: Strapping wrestler De Lange carries SA’s Commonwealth Games hopes

The SA wrestling code has had a tough time getting to grips with events during the latest Commonwealth Games cycle.

Shortly after the 2018 Games in Gold Coast, Australia, the 2018 African champion, Kleinjan Combrinck, died in a car crash.

Then came the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 that put a vicelike hold on wrestling and SA sport in general. If that wasn’t enough, the sport’s administration and coaching hierarchy suffered a double blow in 2021 with the sudden deaths of national coach Nico Coetzee and national federation treasurer Shaun Bartlett in the space of a few months.

Add the loss of Bartlett’s superefficient wife, Gussie, who served as federation secretary, due to a high-pressure business promotion and the sport had suffered yet another body blow.

Thankfully the code has the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England to focus on and there are hopes that Team SA will have up to four wrestlers on the mat.

“We had a bad patch last year as we had Commonwealth Championships in Johannesburg cancelled due to the Omicron variant,” says SA National Wrestling Federation chair Sakkie Bosse. “Thankfully [the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc)] have thrown us a qualifying lifeline at the upcoming Africa Championships in Morocco. We had good results at the world junior championships in Russia last year with a third place by Steyn de Lange.”

Polokwane powerhouse De Lange is certainly the real deal, the 21-year-old weighing in at a hefty 97kg, though his bronze medal at the 2021 world junior championships came in the 92kg division where he beat Turkey’s Muhammed Gimri on points.

“It’s hard to quickly describe my experience at the world championships because there were years of investment that led to that point,” says De Lange. “I gained hope and confidence through the first matches, where I thought I performed phenomenally. Yet, when it all came crashing down after my loss in the semis, the doubt and disappointment came crashing down right alongside it. It took my coach to pick me up and refocus me on the new goal. 

“In the end I’m very pleased with my result, and thankful to have been there with my coach of 15 years, without whom none of my accomplishments would have been possible.”

That coach was, and still is, Jan Roets. “My journey with Steyn started when he was still five. He arrived at coaching with his one arm in plaster of Paris! But, broken arm and all, I could see the potential in this bright-eyed little guy. His personality was one of someone wanting to please, so it was really easy to coach him, and by the age of eight he was a national champion.

Taking gold

“We had to think outside the box because with time he started to outgrow all his training partners to a point where he had to wrestle two partners at once.

“We’d definitely like to take gold in Birmingham and are just loving the opportunity to inspire other athletes from Limpopo and all over the country, especially those from smaller and rural communities to follow their dreams and live life to the fullest.”

It’s glaringly obvious that the coach-athlete relationship runs deep with the duo. “Jan has been a huge part of my life, in fact my whole upbringing,” says De Lange. “There was always strong discipline and he was very strict, some would say harsh, but I’m grateful for that. The first few years it was something of a one-sided relationship, but I firmly believe that’s the way it should be with children and their coach.

“In the last few years it’s become more of a partnership where I give my own input and it’s more of a mutual discussion. There’s no ways I could have achieved any of this without him. He’s the best in the country.”

He laughs when the two-on-one training technique is referenced. “Coach has had to innovate ... so he gets two smaller, younger guys, and I must try to not let them get on top of me and keep them in front of me, so they’re almost like little jackals yapping at my ankles.”

‘Not a violent person’

Wrestling and coaching full-time, but with an eye on furthering his education overseas, the sport has become a way of life for the 21-year-old. He puts in six to eight hours of training daily and even throws in two sessions of ju-jitsu a week — and that’s after his daily wrestling is under his belt.

He’s never had to use his grappling skills away from the competitive arena. “It’s a bit of a standing joke but, funnily enough, I’ve never been involved in any sort of school fight, or pub or street fight. I’m really not a violent person, unless you walk onto the mat with me, then I want to take your head off!”

And though he says he doesn’t come from wrestling parents, the family has very much become a wrestling family, with his elder sisters, Lydia and Marli, successful in their own right, both becoming national and continental champions.

SA’s wrestling family could do with some good news and in De Lange they have a man who could bring the smiles (and hopefully a medal) back from Birmingham.