'Comeback king' Wildschutt poised for more breakthroughs, says Budd-Pieterse

Adriaan Wildschutt's record-breaking form is thanks in no small part to having turned professional last year.

This is according to South Africa distance running great Zola Budd-Pieterse, who recruited and coached the United States-based athlete for Coastal Carolina University five years ago, before he moved to Florida State University to finish his studies. 

Wildschutt this week added the national 5 000m record to the 10 000m one he established in early May, upgrading Elroy Gelant's seven-year-old record to 13:02.46 at the Night of Athletics meeting in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium. 

By setting the new SA records, Wildschutt slashed 25.57sec off his 5 000m personal best, with his new 10 000m time of 27:23.10 - which broke Hendrick Ramaala’s 22-year-old mark – a 15.44sec improvement of his own lifetime best.

The mark set in the shorter distance also qualified the 25-year-old for the World Championships in Budapest next month, something Budd-Pieterse linked to his turning professional after completing his MBA at Florida State. 

"He turned professional, and he's being coached by professional coaches at Hoka (NAZ Elite, a Northern Arizona-based distance running club) and he has a lot more time to recover – I think that's made the biggest difference," Budd-Pieterse explained.  

"I remember (1995 Comrades Marathon winner) Shaun Meiklejohn once telling me that as soon as you become a professional runner … it's not that you train more, you just have more time to recover. So, he [now] has time to recover and sleep - that way he can move his racing to a higher level because he doesn't have to go to work." 

Budd-Pieterse said Wildschutt's training over the last two years had dropped hints that fast times were approaching.

"He was training so