Jada van Staden: South Africa’s Rising Quarter-Mile Star

Born: April 20, 2003
Birthplace: Johannesburg, South Africa
Events: 400m, 400m Hurdles
Personal Bests: 400m – 52.65 (2024) | 400m Hurdles – 58.59 | 300m – 37.46 (2025)
Current Club: TuksAthletics (University of Pretoria)
Coach: Adri de Jongh

From Fourways to the World Stage

Jada van Staden’s journey to becoming one of South Africa’s most promising quarter-milers began in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, where she grew up in the Fourways area. Home-schooled as a youngster, Van Staden found her calling on the track at a remarkably early age, competing in national junior competitions from the age of ten. By fifteen, she was already clocking 54 seconds for the 400 meters—times that marked her as a talent to watch in South African athletics circles.

What sets Van Staden apart isn’t just her natural speed, but her resilience. The young sprinter has navigated setbacks that would have derailed many promising careers, emerging stronger each time and steadily climbing toward her ultimate ambitions: the Olympic Games and World Athletics Championships.

Early Career and Overcoming Adversity

Van Staden became a regular fixture at local and provincial track meetings throughout her youth, building a reputation as a versatile athlete capable of excelling across multiple sprint and hurdle events. Her consistency earned her selection for national junior competitions year after year—a streak interrupted only in 2019 when injury struck.

What began as plantar fasciitis—inflammation of the tissue on the bottom of her foot—eventually led to a far more serious diagnosis: an avulsion fracture of the hip. The injury required a moonboot, crutches, and an arduous twelve months of rehabilitation spread across two separate recovery periods. For a young athlete with Olympic dreams, the timing was particularly cruel.

Yet Van Staden approached her recovery with the same determination she brings to competition. Working under coach Nico van Heerden at the University of Pretoria track, she methodically rebuilt her strength and form. By early 2020, she was back in competition and making up for lost time.

Her comeback earned validation when she competed at the Newton Shootout, a prestigious invitational that brought her face-to-face with South Africa’s elite female athletes, including the legendary Caster Semenya. Shortly after, at the Central Gauteng Championships held at the University of Johannesburg stadium in Auckland Park, Van Staden captured gold medals in both the 400m hurdles and 100m hurdles, achieving qualification standards for the World Junior Championships scheduled for Kenya.

Though the global pandemic ultimately cancelled those championships, the performances confirmed what many already suspected: Van Staden was ready for the international stage.

International Debut: World U20 Championships

Van Staden’s first major international appearance came at the 2021 World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya. Selected for South Africa’s women’s 4x400m relay squad, she contributed to a sixth-place finish in the final—a creditable result that gave the young athlete invaluable experience competing against the world’s best junior talent.

The achievement remains a milestone in her career, with World Athletics recognizing her as having finished in the top eight at a World U20 Championships—a distinction that underscores her early promise on the global stage.

American Interlude: Washington State University

Following her international breakthrough, Van Staden crossed the Atlantic for a season of collegiate athletics in the United States. Joining Washington State University’s track and field program as a freshman during the 2022-2023 academic year, she competed for the Cougars in the Pac-12 Conference.

The American experience proved formative. Van Staden contested events ranging from the 200m to the 400m hurdles, adapting to the demands of NCAA competition. At the Pac-12 Track & Field Championships in May 2023, she reached the final of the 400m hurdles, placing eighth with a time of 59.89 seconds in the preliminary round. She also contributed to Washington State’s 4x100m relay team, which clocked 44.38 seconds at the NCAA West Preliminary Round in Sacramento—still her personal best in the event.

Her season highlights included wins at the Whitworth Invitational (indoor 400m) and the GCU Invitational (4x400m relay), along with solid performances at prestigious meets including the Texas Relays and Mt. SAC Relays.

Return to South Africa: TuksAthletics and Senior Success

Van Staden returned to South Africa to continue her development under the guidance of coach Adri de Jongh at TuksAthletics, the University of Pretoria’s renowned athletics club. Founded in 1918, TuksAthletics has produced generations of South African champions and international medalists, and Van Staden has thrived within its professional environment.

De Jongh, a former three-time national 400m champion herself, has proven the ideal mentor for Van Staden’s ambitions. Under her guidance, Van Staden has shifted her primary focus to the flat 400 meters while maintaining the option to return to the hurdles—an event she believes could become her strongest.

The results have been impressive. At the 2024 ASA Senior Track & Field Championships in Pietermaritzburg, Van Staden announced herself on the senior domestic scene by finishing third in the women’s 400m final with a personal best of 52.65 seconds. The race was one of the deepest in recent South African championship history, with five athletes breaking 53 seconds—a testament to the rising depth of women’s quarter-miling in the country.

The bronze-medal performance earned Van Staden her first senior national championship medal and established her among South Africa’s elite one-lap runners.

2025: National Titles and World Relays

The 2025 season has marked another step forward in Van Staden’s progression. At the ASA Age Group Championships in Cape Town in late March, she captured the Under-23 400m national title, winning in 53.89 seconds and narrowly defeating Precious Molepo by just one-hundredth of a second.

At the ASA Senior Track & Field Championships in Potchefstroom in April, Van Staden finished fourth in a highly competitive 400m final, clocking 53.28 seconds behind national champion Miranda Coetzee (51.30), Shirley Nekhubui (51.49), and Precious Molepo (52.36).

Her consistent performances earned selection to the South African squad for the World Athletics Relays in Guangzhou, China, in May 2025. Van Staden was named to both the women’s 4x400m relay pool and the mixed 4x400m team.

In Guangzhou, she contributed to the mixed 4x400m relay alongside Hannah van Niekerk, Mthi Mthimkulu, and Tumisang Shezi. The quartet finished fifth in the final with a time of 3:16.29—a personal best for Van Staden in the mixed relay format. The performance helped South Africa’s relay contingent secure automatic qualification for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September 2025, capping a successful campaign that saw the nation top the overall medal standings at the event.

A Self-Described “Late Bloomer”

Despite her accomplishments, Van Staden maintains a refreshingly grounded perspective on her development. In an April 2025 interview with the University of Pretoria, she described herself as “a late bloomer” in sport, adding that she is “still working towards my peak performance.”

“Luckily, time is on my side as I am only 21,” she noted.

Her approach to competition reflects both confidence and enjoyment. “It is during training that you make the immense sacrifices and put in the long hours,” Van Staden explained. “Racing is the easy part. It is the part where I go and show off the hard work I have put in.”

Looking ahead, Van Staden has set ambitious targets. “I don’t want to limit myself to running 52 seconds in the 400m,” she said. “I aim to run 51 seconds at the National Championships because that is the world standard. It would be good for South African female athletics if more of us could run 51 seconds.”

She also intends to return to the 400m hurdles, where her personal best of 58.59 seconds suggests considerable potential. “From next year, she will compete in both,” the University of Pretoria reported. “She believes the hurdle event is one in which she really could excel.”

Personal Bests and Career Highlights

Individual Events

Relay Events

Career Highlights

• 2021: Sixth place, 4x400m relay, World Athletics U20 Championships (Nairobi)
• 2023: Pac-12 Championships 400m hurdles finalist; NCAA West Preliminary qualifier (4x100m)
• 2024: Bronze medal, 400m, ASA Senior Track & Field Championships
• 2025: Under-23 national champion, 400m; World Athletics Relays participant (Guangzhou)

Sponsorship and Representation

Van Staden is a sponsored athlete with PUMA, representing the global sportswear brand in competition. She is managed by Newton Agency and receives nutritional support from USN South Africa.

Social Media

Fans can follow Jada van Staden’s journey on Instagram at @jada_van_staden, where she shares training updates, competition highlights, and glimpses into her life as a professional athlete.

Looking Ahead

With her 22nd birthday behind her and the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on the horizon, Jada van Staden stands at an exciting juncture in her career. The combination of her 400m speed, hurdles versatility, and relay experience makes her a valuable asset for South African athletics—both now and in the years to come.

Her trajectory mirrors the broader resurgence of women’s sprinting in South Africa, where athletes like Miranda Coetzee, Zeney van der Walt, and Hannah van Niekerk have pushed domestic standards to new heights. As Van Staden continues to develop under Adri de Jongh’s guidance at TuksAthletics, her stated goals of sub-51-second 400m times and Olympic competition appear increasingly achievable.

For now, the home-schooled kid from Fourways who first competed at nationals at age ten is proving that patience, perseverance, and a love of competition can carry an athlete a very long way indeed.