No spots for our superstars
In a golden era for SA track and field, Sascoc can only find place for 13 in a 169-strong Games squad
ATHLETICS was the big loser when the South African team was announced yesterday for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in Australia from April 4-15 with only 13 track and field athletes included in the 169-member squad.
Twenty four track and field athletes made the initial squad but almost half were found not good enough to make the final Commonwealth Games team.
Only three women made the cut with three-time world champion Caster Semenya and Olympic javelin throw silver medallist Sunette Viljoen making it.
Viljoen and former world 400m hurdles bronze medallist LJ van Zyl are among the senior members of the squad as they will be going to their fourth Commonwealth Games.
World long-jump champion Luvo Manyonga and bronze medallist Ruswahl Samaai will be keen to give South Africa a 1-2 finish on the podium.
Aquatics was the big winner with 23 swimmers and three divers earning their places for the quadrennial showpiece.
The swimming team will be spearheaded by 2016 Rio Olympics gold medallists Cameron van der Burgh and Chad le Clos, with promising women Tatjana Schoenmaker, Erin Gallagher and Dune Coetzee also making the cut.
Swimming South Africa (SSA) chief executive Shaun Adriaanse said they had lobbied Sascoc to select a larger team with the hopes of unearthing the generation to follow in Le Clos and Van der Burgh’s footsteps.
“We will have an attrition rate and not all of them will make the grade, but if we get 20 percent out of them who gain the necessary experience and go on to perform (at the highest level), I am happy,” Adriaanse said.
The 2014 Commonwealth Games was the first time since Kuala Lumpur in 1998 that a South African women’s swimmer failed to win a medal.
The SA swimming team will bank heavily on Le Clos and Van der Burgh, who have the ability to win multiple medals.
Le Clos won six individual and six relay medals from the 2010 and the 2014 Games in Delhi and Glasgow respectively.
Van der Burgh won gold in both the 50 and 100m breaststroke events at the 2010 Delhi Games and successfully defended his 50m breaststroke title before finishing second over the 100m distance in Glasgow.
Luan Grobbelaar and Dune Coetzee, both aged 15, will be the two youngest members of the team, while lawn bowler Princess Schreuder, 67, will be the oldest competitor for South Africa.
Since South Africa’s return to international sport, the country has sent teams to six Commonwealth Games, where they have finished fifth on the medals table on three occasions (Kuala Lumpur in 1998; Melbourne in 2006 and New Delhi in 2010).
South Africa slipped down the table at the previous edition in Glasgow four years ago, finishing in seventh place with a total medal count of 40 (13 gold, 10 silver and 17 bronze).
Sascoc president Gideon Sam said that instead of predicting how many medals the nation’s athletes would reap, he hoped they would return to fifth place on the overall medals table.
“Two years out from the Tokyo Olympics, these Games are a great platform to see where our sportsmen and women, both established and developing, are on the world stage,” Sam said.
“You will see that it’s a great blend of experience and raw talent and I’m confident we’ll once again be right up there with the cream of Commonwealth countries and looking to improve on our seventh place on the medals table in Glasgow four years ago.”
He had added that the Olympic body decided to broaden South Africa’s athletic base with an eye on the 2022 Commonwealth Games that were awarded to Durban before the country was stripped of the hosting rights.
Sam said that instead of shelving the idea, they opted to give as many athletes as possible an opportunity to participate in the Commonwealth Games.
“It is history now that we missed the opportunity, but we didn’t change the process and open up so that we have more athletes going through,” Sam said.
The team will represent the country across 16 sporting codes, including para-sports athletics, lawn bowls, swimming, table tennis and powerlifting.