Commonwealth snub sparks athletes’ fury
Selection policies again questioned
Team South Africa squad selection policies have once again come into question after the list for the Commonwealth Games was revealed this week.
A huge uproar has erupted within Athletics SA (ASA), with its president Aleck Skhosana saying his mailbox was swamped with messages from aggrieved athletes demanding answers for their exclusion.
There are only 13 track and field athletes included in the 169-member squad for the multicoded event on Australia’s Gold Coast from April 4 to 15.
“We submitted a list [of athletes] to Sascoc [SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee] that we believe were suitable but it is not our prerogative when it came down to the final team,” said Skhosana.
As for whether he was disappointed, he said: “My e-mail is flooded with [messages from] disgruntled coaches and athletes but I told them it’s not the end of the road. We still have the IAAF Indoor Championships, the World Cup and the African Championships coming up.”
Sowetan has seen a list of 24 track and field athletes that was submitted to Sascoc but the likes of Khotso Mokoena (triple jump) and Cornel Fredericks (400m hurdles) – both defending champions in their events – could not make the final cut.
Sascoc argued that they did not make the required top 10 in the Commonwealth nations rankings during the August 1 to December 31 2017 qualifying window.
Other prominent athletes who were deemed not good enough were long-distance runners Stephen Mokoka and Mapaseka Makhanya.
Athletics (nine medals, including three golds) and swimming (12 medals) were the biggest contributors in SA’s 40-medal haul at the previous Games in Scotland two years ago.
Skhosana, meanwhile, refused to entertain any suggestions of politicking.
His dispute with Sascoc is well documented after he was removed from the board of the Olympic governing body as a co-opted member last year. This after Sascoc flouted its own constitution by exceeding the quota of board members.
Athletics team Women:
Caster Semenya, Sunette Viljoen and Wenda Nel.
Men:
Luvo Manyonga, Akani Simbine, Lebogang Shange, Ruswahl Samaai, Antonio Alkana, Constant Pretorius, LJ van Zyl, Wayne Snyman, Phil-Mar Janse van Rensburg and Breyton Poole.