Schools sports about-face
Last-minute change on ruling for cross-country age groups
THE provincial Sport Department has rescinded its decision to allow only certain age groups to compete in the Eastern Cape schools’ cross-country championships this weekend.
This follows a report in The Herald yesterday which stated race categories for u-10, u-11, u-14 and u-16 were to be scrapped for the East London event.
In a complete turnaround, the department notified all athletic structures and district officers for school sport that every age group was back on track for Saturday. The event will now include the u-10, u-11, u-12, u-13, u-14, u-15, u-16, u-17 and u-19 race categories.
The Eastern Cape championships are a vital step for those seeking SA colours in Rustenburg on September 28.
Department spokeswoman Malehlohonolo Mlabateki confirmed the change of plan yesterday.
She said the original decision to cut certain age groups was made by the national Sport and Basic Education departments.
“The communication to adjust the age groups was based on the fact that the event would be aligned to the original national
‘ The decision just came out of the blue . . . I don’t know why it was not acted upon sooner
document,” she said. However, Mlabateki said during a national meeting held in Pretoria last week it was decided to go back to the original competition format.
“A follow-up memo from SRSA [Sport and Recreation South Africa] was sent to the province on Monday at [4pm] and as a result the provincial coordinators started to rectify the original communication,” she said.
Department-organised primary and high school sports events in the province have a long record of ending in chaos due to financial mismanagement.
But a sports department insider described the provincial authority’s back-peddling this time as strange.
“The decision just came out of the blue today [yesterday]. If we knew about it I don’t know why it was not acted upon sooner.”
In the past, the department has been blamed for bad planning and has been hounded by glitches in transport, food and accommodation plans. This led to the national department intervening last month, ordering the provincial authority to spend more money on school sports.
A Bay school coach, who asked not to be named, said it was good news for cross-country in the province. “But it is typical. I just hope the officials learn from this and plan better in future,” he said.