Please stop the clock now and get it right

In March last year, the athletics community was stunned for a few moments after Wayde van Niekerk blitzed a sub-44 seconds 400m heat at the SA Open Championships in Bloemfontein.

And with stadium clocks often flashing slightly slower times than official electronic recordings, there was a collective sigh of disappointment when the timekeepers confirmed he had in fact run 44.11.

For a clock to be 0.23 out in a one-lap race points to a blatant technical blunder, and it was later revealed the onfield screen had been connected to a hand-timing device.

This sort of patch-up job might be OK when you’re hosting a highschool meeting, but when people around the world are waiting for live updates of a top-flight domestic event, it can have far-reaching consequences.

With Van Niekerk since having broken the 400m world record in the Olympic final, even more eyes were on the Speed Series meeting in Bloemfontein this week, and after attracting main-stream media from around the country, live updates were again transmitted to an international audience.

This time, with Van Niekerk beaten by junior prodigy Gift Leotlela, the athletics fraternity was let down when the transponder on the electronic timing device failed to react at the start.

Officials later produced handtimed performances for the topthree men, though none were available for the rest of the field.

Hand times are pointless in modern athletics and cannot be recognised in qualifying for major international championships, nor can they be considered for record purposes, possibly denying Leotlela a national junior best.

Even more bizarre were the results of other races, as athletes shattered their personal bests in multiple events, and while Athletics SA insisted it was a fast track and pointed out that local sprinting had evolved, there were more than enough alarm bells to create cause for concern.

A bewildered Ruan de Vries was left near speechless after he hit barriers and still went on to smash his career best, setting a new national record in the high hurdles at the age of 31.

Behind him, unheralded athlete Junior Mkatini ripped 0.68 off his personal best and also dipped under the ASA qualifying standard for the World Championships in London in August, leaving the country’s top 110m hurdler Anto- nio Alkana facing a great deal of pressure this season if the times in Bloem are ratified.

Based on the federation’s new criteria, Alkana will need to run 13.38 or faster just to qualify for the global championships.

In a sport which revolves around times and measurements, for a national track and field meeting to create such controversy two years in a row does not only reflect poorly on the province, but on the sport as a whole in South Africa.

Repeated blunders will make local performances suspect, and questions will be asked every time a fast time is run in South Africa, potentially keeping international athletes away with concerns that results at domestic meetings might not be ratified.

The likes of Van Niekerk, Akani Simbine, Luvo Manyonga, Caster Semenya and Sunette Viljoen have established themselves among the best in the world in their disciplines, and interest in local athletics has grown significantly over the last few years.

It doesn’t help, however, when officials turn a blind eye to results that are clearly suspect, and if South Africa are to be taken seriously as a potential athletics powerhouse then officials need to pull up their socks and ensure technical issues are reduced to a minimum.

When there is a problem, like the new Free State Athletics timing system having trouble, it’s more productive to address the issue immediately and correct it than try sweep it under the carpet.

Even De Vries knew there was something wrong, shaking his head at what officials insisted was a valid time.

And when an athlete has enough integrity to question the validity of a record performance, officials and administrators can admit it’s at least worth checking whether they’ve made a mistake.