This is it ... South Africa’s medal hopefuls
There is no one we have overlooked, says Sascoc chairman Sam, but Pistorius has to qualify by June 30 to hear his name read out on July 4
S prepared to announce the first wave of the South African Olympic Team for London yesterday, Gideon Sam, the president of Sascoc, praised Tubby Reddy, the CEO of Sascoc, for the way he had organised the presentation.
“As you can see, Tubby has been incredibly clever,” said Sam. “He arranged that we on the podium are close to the exit so we can escape quickly after we announce the team in case any one is angry with us and wants to do us harm.”
But Sam’s work was the easiest of the afternoon, the announcement of the first section of the team made easy by the fact that the team had picked themselves. There has been very little controversy in how the team has been chosen, a task made thus by the strict set of procedures set down by Sascoc and their affiliates. Some of those have been criticised, not least the fact that Athletics South Africa demand that their athletes post two qualifying times, one of which must be overseas. Most of the athletics team was announced, with only Khotso Mokoena, who qualified last week omitted because Sascoc are waiting for the final administrative work to come through. Roland Schoeman becomes one of an elite field to qualify for four Olympic Games.
“This is it. With the programme we started back in 2009, then this is it. There is no one we have overlooked,” said Sam yesterday. “All the federations have presented us with their best athletes, made sure they have qualified at the correct levels we required. This is it.”
Well, not quite. Caster Semenya leads a strong track and field team that is still waiting for Oscar Pistorius to qualify. He has until June 30 to do so, and is hoping to hear his name read out when the second and final team announcement takes place on July 4. Swimming have a strong group that will be looking to two men to bring back medals in Cameron van der Burgh and Chad le Clos, with hopes in the medley relay at the end of the swimming programme. The men’s and women’s hockey teams have emerged as outside medal
Achances, while there is some hope that the Cinderella sports could provide surprise medals.
“I see the 12 medals in there. There’s no doubt about it that there are a lot of potential medallists here. When I was going through the team last night I there big potential here,” said Sam, who now wants to ensure that the athletes picked are nursed to the Games. “This morning I said to my management, put LJ van Zyl in front of me so I can ask him whether he needs more help. Is his injury serious or not? Do the athletes need mental help? What do they want? Now is the time to look after them.”
The team should top out at 114 athletes, but there may be a few others allowed in on a wild card, even those who do not qualify on ASA’s strict criteria.
“I would be more inclined to give a youngster who is bubbling under a wild card than someone who is older because we need to make an investment for 2016,” said Sam. “I have a lot of confidence in (Mbulaeni) Mulaudzi and Oscar, of course, because if you put Mulaudzi on a track he will deliver. We’ll have to sit with the federation and talk about it. We don’t want to upset them. Once we have the whole package of athletes, we’ll look at those who haven’t quite made it and discuss them. We have to plan for the future. This has been an easy team to pick because of the structures we put in place, but we are open to debate. Like Ross Tucker (sports scientist) said, is it a proper thing to make them qualify twice. We need to debate that.”
Sam said that the question of incentives for medals would be settled by the time the next team announcement is made on July 4.