ASA plays hardball with athletes

If Athletics South Africa’s (ASA) intention was to attract the country’s best athletes to the national marathon championships here by making changes to the Olympic qualifying criteria a week in advance, they failed spectacularly.

|||

EAST LONDON: If Athletics South Africa’s (ASA) intention was to attract the country’s best athletes to the national marathon championships here by making changes to the Olympic qualifying criteria a week in advance, they failed spectacularly.

Some of the top marathon runners were only told days before the championships that they needed to participate as a prerequisite for Olympic qualification.

The SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) issued a press release yesterday afternoon that seemed to support ASA in their stance.

“Athletes need to take note that they should have participated in the 2014, 2015 or 2016 championships to be eligible,” Sascoc said in a statement.

“ASA as a federation can have its own internal selection criteria for them to consider athletes for submission to Sascoc.”

The original criteria were not clear as to whether athletes needed to participate in the specific events they hoped to qualify for the Rio Olympics.

However, Sascoc said yesterday that ASA’s internal selection criteria, only released to provinces eight days before the championships, would be enforced.

ASA added that clause to their internal document, which stipulates that athletes need to have participated in at least one of the SA Marathon Championships in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

This would exclude some of the country’s foremost distance runners, who did not participate in any of the two previous championships and are set to miss today’s race as they have scheduled international marathons over the next two months.

Olympic marathoner Lusapho April, who has won the Hannover Marathon and finished third in the 2013 New York City Marathon, was only informed two days before the East London race that he was required to run to be eligible for selection.

Bizarrely, the criteria would be applied retrospectively, expecting athletes to have participated in events that happened in the past two years.

Four-time Olympian Hendrick Ramaala and his group of athletes would not line up in East London as they were informed at the 11th hour that they needed to participate.

“A week ago I was told to go and I declined. One week’s notice is not enough time to prepare for a marathon.

“It was not part of the plan (to race in East London). Sibusiso Nzima left for Spain on Thursday for the Seville Marathon and other guys have marathons in April.”

While the top men seem largely to have defied ASA, most of the leading women will turn out in East London with the Kalmer sisters, Rene and Christine, and Mapaseka Makhanya scheduled to participate in the race.

There was concern that the remeasured Buffalo Marathon course was not an IAAF-recognised race, which added motivation for athletes to snub it, but Sascoc confirmed it had been approved.

“We have received confirmation and proof that the SA Marathon Championships (incorporated as part of the Buffalo Marathon) have now been approved by the IAAF as a qualification route for Rio 2016,” Sascoc said.

Ramaala, who represented South Africa in the marathon at three Olympics, said he had set qualifying times at international races in the past where he was able to run fast times.

Although the route had been remeasured, it included a number of turns and steep hills which would make it difficult for a fast race compared to flat international courses.

“I am not worried because I haven’t received any communication.

“I don’t know why we are panicking because people like Lusapho April, Nzima and Rene Kalmer didn’t do anything wrong,” he said.

“I am ignoring everything. Maybe it will backfire on me, but I was not told (what the criteria were).” - Saturday Star