SA athletics symposium can prevent relay mix-up
Better planning to ensure SA qualify and compete in the relays at major events is set to be a hot topics at an ASA coaching symposium.
|||Cape Town - Better planning to ensure South Africa qualify and compete in the relays at major international events is set to be one of the hot topics at an Athletics South Africa coaching symposium in Bloemfontein next month.
While Wayde van Niekerk and Caster Semenya brought home Olympic gold from Rio, South Africa’s athletics team may have missed out on a few extra medals in the relay events – and this was all due to a lack of planning and preparation in the preceding 12 months before the Rio Games.
Two medal hopefuls in Brazil would’ve been the men’s 4x100m team and the women’s 4x400m group, while the men’s 4x400m outfit could also have had a tilt at a top-three place.
Akani Simbine, Henricho Bruintjies, Anaso Jobodwana and Van Niekerk would’ve made for a world-class 100m team, with only Jobodwana yet to run a sub-10 second time in his career. Van Niekerk would’ve anchored the 4x400m that could’ve included hurdlers LJ van Zyl and Lindsay Hanekom, as well as Shaun de Jager.
Semenya led the women’s 4x400m team to gold at the African Championships Durban in their first outing in 2016 in a new South African and African record of 3:28.49, alongside Jeanelle Griesel, Justine Palframan and Wenda Nel, but they didn’t qualify for Rio as they never ran any other races before that.
“The IAAF rules state that there are two qualifying times needed and that average is taken to determine the top 16 for the Olympics. Now Caster and the other athletes ran a good 400m relay time at the African Champs, but they didn’t get a second chance to run another time,” Semenya’s coach Jean Verster told Independent Media on Tuesday.
“But after that, ASA suddenly wanted to organise something to get that second time, but athletes like Caster had already done their planning for the season and it was too late. They could’ve used the Nite Series earlier in the season to run a few relays and qualify, and we didn’t have any teams at the World Relays last year.
“It’s unacceptable that we didn’t have teams there, and I know it costs money. But we must at least try to participate and qualify to have a chance of getting a medal.
“The symposium is a very good idea where people can get together, and it should be interactive where people can ask questions and things like that. And it’s not just about who are giving the lectures, but just for the coaches to open up communication channels and make friends with each other.
“And that is where South Africa has a big problem – our coaches don’t always work together for a common goal.”
Palframan’s mentor, Mohamed Ally from Stellenbosch University, believes that there needs to be much greater emphasis placed on relay events, and that a roadmap must be implemented now ahead of next year’s world athletics championships in London in August.
“What I am hoping that will happen is that there will be an opportunity for a think-tank into the planning for London 2017 now, and also identifying of needs of our top athletes, and at some stage, the formation of an elite coaches’ committee – with a view of them keeping an eye on the planning for the next few years, and not just 2017,” Ally told Independent Media.
“Look a little beyond that, and have a network created at the symposium so that the coaches can walk away with a database of contacts of the coaches of our top athletes. We’ve got some interesting challenges; we missed out on relay deadlines due to a lack of co-ordination.
“We need to sit down and say let’s sort things out. We have a number of top young athletes coming through the system, and we need to inculcate the culture of relays in them. We don’t have 20 Wayde van Niekerks, but collectively, the crop of athletes that we do have are potential world-beaters in relays.
“If you look back at 2011 (world championships in Daegu, South Korea), when we got that silver medal, we beat Jamaica in the men’s 4x400m relay.”
The symposium will take place in Bloemfontein on October 7-8, with ASA stating that the coaches will discuss a system to “support, network, prepare SA’s elite coaches for the demands presented by top international competitions such as the IAAF World Championships and Olympic Games”.
“It’s time to reflect and take the organisation forward by having a round table discussion with our coaches,” ASA president Aleck Skhosana said.
“Different speakers will spend the two intense days sharing experiences and seeking how we can also make it easier for each other to present an athlete that is ready for competition at all levels.”
Simbine’s coach Werner Prinsloo said the last symposium was held in 2010, so the next one is long overdue. Simbine was also a victim of odd selection policies when he missed out on competing in the 200m in Rio despite having SA’s second-fastest time behind Van Niekerk, and that kind of issue could be discussed at the symposium.
“I think the issue of the relays will definitely come up during the discussions, and we will see what the people have to say. I really hope that the situation with Akani won’t happen again,” Prinsloo said.
“We just want to know whether the federation has put a plan in place to give the relays a better chance – more opportunities to participate and then run qualifying times for the world champs. We have the athletes, so it’s just a question of bringing everyone together, and also to get everyone’s mindset right for the relay – at the moment, it’s more of a second thought, that ‘We just have to do it’.
“If the federation listen to the coaches a bit more, then things will happen as we are the guys on the ground who do the hard work and the planning. Sometimes our planning doesn’t fall in that well with their planning!”
ashfak.mohamed@inl.co.za
@ashfakmohamed
Independent Media