We are currently in the midst of a golden era of South African athletics, led by the heroics of global superstars such as Wayde van Niekerk and Caster Semenya.
That’s not to mention the likes of Akani Simbine, Sunette Viljoen and Luvo Manyonga, who have performed brilliantly on the world stage.
Rather than getting behind our athletes, though, the sport’s governing body has tightened its belt when it comes to the national world championship team selection.
Times LIVE with the details:
With the nation focused on them, Athletics SA (ASA) named its London-bound team. They number 24, of whom 18 have achieved ASA’s A-qualifying standards which are mostly tougher than the criteria set by the sports world governing body, the IAAF.
No fewer than 19 other SA athletes matched the IAAF marks, but ASA picked only six of them, with observers insisting there was no consistency in its choices.
Of the six, race-walker Lebogang Shange and sprinter Pieter Conradie are ranked the highest, at 35, while the two women’s marathoners are outside the top 200.
Sprinter Henricho Bruintjies, one of seven Olympians excluded, is ranked 33rd.
The men’s 400m hurdles has been one of South Africa’s premier events for two decades, but ASA chose not to send a single one of the four IAAF qualifiers, who included 2014 Commonwealth Games champion Cornel Fredericks and veteran LJ van Zyl.
US-based distance star Dominique Scott has run eight personal bests and two SA records this season, but she was overlooked.
Over on social media, some of those big names voiced their discontent:
When you consider just how well our young athletes are performing, the support of the governing body becomes even more important.
Below from Huff Post SA:
South Africa’s athletics team produced one of its finest ever performances at the World IAAF Championship. Team SA topped the event’s 2017 IAAF U/18 age group. The games were hosted in Nairobi, Kenya.
Team SA jumped ahead of China with 11 medals, and stellar performances from our track and field athletes caught the eye of the nation, more especially gold winner Breyton Poole.
These wins show South African athletics is on the verge of perhaps global domination and actually fulfilling our potential as athletics giants…
It is the first time that South Africa achieved such a feat and South Africa crowned their first ever U/18 200m champion in Retshidisitswe Mlenga.
Now is the time for Athletics South Africa to back these youngsters, and those who are already professional athletes competing at the highest level, but instead they have left many of our top athletes in the lurch by setting more stringent qualifying criteria than the IAAF itself.
World beaters like Wayde and Caster will be fine without their help, but the only way to uncover such gems is to invest across the board.
As it stands, it’s clear that our athletes don’t feel they’re getting anywhere near the support they should.
