‘We won’t be bullied’

W Eare Athletics Eswatini! We are here to improve the sport in the country and nothing will stop us from doing that. For some of us, this is a calling and not a pastime. For some of us, athletics is more than just a sport. It is all we have. It is our life and it really pains us to see certain elements doing all they can to disrupt the sport.

It is painful to some of us to see grown men go out of their way to ensure that there is no peace within our ranks, when we believe we have made meaningful strides in the past few years to be where we are today. We did say in our previous columns that we know some of these officials. We know their history in the sport as well. They have failed to do anything meaningful during their time but they find pleasure in destroying what others do. Some of these officials have other sports to turn to. That is why it is so easy for them to sow seeds of chaos and confusion in our sport. They want things done their way. We will not allow that.

Inasmuch as we have an open door policy for our members, we will not be bullied into submission. We will not allow people with hidden agendas and ulterior motives to destroy the sport. As stated before, some of these officials have had their chance to run the sport but they failed dismally. They now want to drag the current leadership down with them. In doing so, they are even failing to consider the future of the athletes.

PAinFUL

It is really painful to see some of the county’s athletes being forced to boycott AE activities, when these activities are official AE events and are in the official calendar. The number of athletes participating in AE events in the recent past has clearly been very low. We are aware of the clandestine moves.

Unfortunately, such moves only destroy these athletes, who are supposed to have a bright future. Boycotting official events as athletes, does not help anyone really, but merely destroys the athletes. This robs the athlete of a chance to represent the Kingdom of Eswatini in the regional, continental and world championships, which is something every normal athlete should aspire for.

We have been left deeply disappointed by some of the athletes’ attitude towards the AE events as well. These competitions are meant for no one else but the athlete. These competitions are meant to sharpen our athletes and definitely not the officials, who have had their time. It is such a tragedy when athletes will be dragged into petty politics. We did say that local athletes can register as individuals in these competitions. They should wise up and start competing in these competitions. For the record, these results stand and are considered official results by the AE executive. Boycotting the competitions ultimately helps no one.

THE ACTION CONTINUES

As stated in the opening lines, we will not allow ourselves to be bullied. Differing in opinion does not give the aggrieved party the right to sabotage the people running the sport. There wouldn’t be a leadership in place if all of us want power. We are sorry to note that these people are only interested in seizing power from the executive and nothing else. They are actually power hungry and unfortunately, this does not do the sport any good.

We will continue with our activities as earlier planned. We will continue to organise and host events because we have the athlete’s well-being at heart. Our athletes are our priority. We have a number of events lined up for this month and the rest of the year of course. Poor turnouts will not dampen our spirits