Potential medals lost exposes ASA’s flawed policy

SOUTH AFRICA produced a record medal harvest at the IAAF World Championships in London clinching three gold, a silver, and two bronze medals but missed out on displaying its depth due to Athletics SA’s (ASA) selection policy.

The country ended the biennial showpiece third on the overall medal table behind the US and Kenya with total tallies of 29 and 11 respectively.

Semenya brought the curtain down on an extraordinary championships for South African with her 800m gold on Sunday, adding to the 1 500m bronze from earlier in the week.

Semenya and 400m world record-holder Wayde van Niekerk confirmed their status as South Africa’s queen and king of track and field.

Van Niekerk defended his 400m world title while proving his class by adding the 200m silver medal to his name.The gravity of Van Niekerk’s achievement should be appreciated after he first managed to retain his world 400m title in cold conditions after four days of racing.

While the rest of his competitors had the benefit of resting ahead of the one-lap sprint final, Van Niekerk had to manoeuvre past the 200m heats.

Winning the 400m was half the job done as he had to refocus the next day to tackle cold and wet conditions in the 200m semi-final where he nearly missed out on the final, qualifying as one of the fastest finishers.

It was nothing short of spectacular from South Africa’s world superstars, with long-jump extraordinaire Luvo Manyonga adding the world senior title to the junior one from seven years ago. Joining Manyonga on the podium, Ruswahl Samaai won bronze.

Of South Africa’s 26 participants, only nine made it into the semi-finals while five made it through to finals, excluding those in the 10 000m, marathon, and race walking.

With Semenya and Van Niekerk winning two medals each, South Africa’s performance in terms of depth may be slightly skewed.

South African sprinting sensation Akani Simbine finishing fifth in the men’s 100m final, while race walker Lebogang Shange turned in a gutsy performance for a fourth place in the 20-kilometre event.

ASA’s erratic policy is evident in the performances at the championships, where nearly half of the athletes competing failed to meet ASA’s A-qualifying standards.

The premise of the tougher standards was that these athletes would have a greater chance of advancing to their respective semi-finals and finish among the top 16 or eight.

Eight of the 16 so-called A-qualifiers did not make it past the first round while two of the athletes who were included on the IAAF standard made the top 16.

Sprinter Justine Palframan and middle-distance runner Gena Lofstrand both made it into their respective semifinals in the 200m and 800m despite initially missing out on selection for not posting ASA’s standards.

Seven of the 14 athletes who met the IAAF’s standards, but were not good enough according to ASA’s criteria, would have made the top 16 based on their season’s best times.

While these times may count for nothing, it was the basis by which ASA selected athletes for the team.

Former South African 100m record-holder Henricho Bruintjies’ top time of 10.06 seconds could have earned him sixth place in the final.

Any three of the four male 400m hurdlers who were left at home – Cornel Fredericks (49.27), Constant Pretorius (49.28), LJ van Zyl (49.29) – or Leroux Hamman (49.35) could have made it into the semi-final as they all went faster than the slowest non-automatic qualifier’s time of 50.12.

South Africa can nevertheless be proud of the team’s performance.