South Africa has always had good athletes. Upon our first inclusion into the Olympics after Apartheid, we won the defining event of the ancient Olympics - the marathon. We've had above-average middle distance runners in past but today, we have a generation of really fast guys across many events. Akani Simbine & Wayde van Niekerk being the faces of the recent sprinting renaissance in South Africa. The relay mentality : As much as there's chaos & anarchy in South Africa, there are pockets of order. This is why we rarely fuddle simple tasks. Our army for example, isn't the best in Africa but we get some small basic things right. And if you can get small basic things right, you can do surprisingly well. And this is why relays are almost perfect for South Africa. We are seldom wasteful because we don't often have the luxury of plenty & relays are about efficiency as much as they are about speed. That switch between athletes in a race can cost you or save you a ...