ASA confirms African Championship is cancelled
IN A major blow to some local athletes still pushing for Olympic qualifying performances, the African Championships in Athletics, scheduled to take place in Lagos, Nigeria, has been cancelled.
The event had already been postponed and moved to different dates and venues in Algeria, and late last month, the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) made a final decision to have the championships held in Nigeria. But yesterday, Athletics South Africa's (ASA) excellence manager, Hezekiel Sepeng, sent out a circular to the local provinces where he announced that the event was off.
“(ASA) has received communication from the (CAA) confirming that the CAA African Senior Championships that were to take place in Lagos, Nigeria, from 23-27 June, 2021, has been cancelled,” Sepeng wrote.
The 800m Olympic silver medallist from the 1996 Atlanta Games acknowledged that the continental showpiece was going to be used as a final attempt to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
Now, apart from those SA athletes already competing in Europe and elsewhere, others based back home will have a few local events to try and achieve their qualifiers. There will be Athletics Gauteng North league meetings on Saturday and June 19, a Western Province Athletics middle-distance meeting in Cape Town on Saturday, field events meetings hosted by Boland Athletics on Saturday, June 19 and 26, and Athletics Central North West will have an open meeting on June 26.
Caster Semenya may run in the Cape Town event, although it is likely to be a 3 000m and not 5 000m race, as she was planning to qualify in the latter distance at the African Championships. She will now have to find an alternative event. Wayde van Niekerk is another high-profile athlete yet to qualify for Tokyo, but he is based in the US.
* For the latest on the Josef Odložil Memorial held in Prague last night, and where several South Africans continued their preparations for the Tokyo Games, including SA sprinter Thando Dlodlo, visit www.iol.co.za/sport