Irvette gets the accolades

SOUTH AFRICA’S top female distance runner Irvette van Zyl will be reinstated as the winner of the Spar Women’s Grand Prix 10km in Pietermaritzburg with Athletics SA (ASA) getting involved in the saga.

ASA scolded KwaZulu-Natal Athletics (KZNA) for “flouting” IAAF and CAA rules when it altered the results of the race.

Van Zyl won the race steeped in controversy when five of her competitors including eventual series winner Glenrose Xaba and Kesa Molotsane were disqualified for following the wrong route.

Both the race referee and the jury of appeal found that the five runners should be disqualified and the race results should stand.

KZNA bizarrely overturned the ruling declaring Moletsane the winner, relegating Van Zyl to fifth place.

The decision has deepened KZNA’s alienation from the mother body with ASA’s council which included 16 provinces condemning several issues which were re-classified as KZNA matters on the agenda.

ASA chief executive Richard Stander said the council ordered that the results of the race be restored. The council also expressed its irritation for showing disrespect to ASA for taking the mother body to court.

KZNA were not present at the council meeting, to the chagrin of the members, after sending a notice of recusal the day before the meeting.

Stander said they were still awaiting instructions from their lawyers on the way forward in dealing with KZNA’s actions against the mother body.

Van Zyl has been in flying form since she gave birth to her second child in June.

She had won four prominent 10-kilometre races – including Pietermaritzburg – on the trot to affirm her place as one of the country’s best distance athletes.