Mine De Klerk Is Hopeful For Her ‘Big One’ at the Pac-12 Championship

University of Oregon’s Mine De Klerk won the Women’s Discus with a throw of 51.97 meters at the Oregon Twilight on Friday, May 5, 2023. Photo by Maggie Troxell.

By Maddie Lang

After a strong win in the discus throw Friday night at the Oregon Twilight Meet, throwing 51.97 meters on her third throw, Oregon’s Mine De Klerk is looking for even more.

“I know a big one’s coming, hopefully next week,” De Klerk said, looking toward the Pac-12 Championships. She said she has felt strong in practice and that she’ll know when she has thrown the big one for the season. 

“Maybe with a little bit more pressure and competition, I'll finally get the big one I’ve been training for,” she added.

One of De Klerk’s biggest emphases lately has been her change in approach in her other event, shot put. 

She said that the gliding approach wasn’t working for her anymore. 

At one practice this season, De Klerk and her teammates were just having fun when Brian Blutreich,Oregon’s new throws coach, told her, “Just spin.” She attempted a rotating approach, and he told her it wasn’t bad for someone who hadn’t done it before. 

After conferring with her father and her coach from back home in South Africa, she decided to give the new approach a try. De Klerk said she’s been working on it for a few months but still has a ways to go before she fully has it down.

“It’s gonna take awhile to get the timing right, but I don’t think it’s been going that bad,” De Klerk said. 

Her season record with the new approach is 16.29 meters. Her personal best, which she set last April using the gliding approach, is 17.19. She has plenty of room to improve on her throw.

De Klerk said, “[There’s been] a lot of changes, and I think there’s still a lot more things to change. But for now it’s been good.”