Grant Shimmin OLYMPICS
With many of the athletes who’ll be their national team-mates in Sydney in September already named, the battle to get to this year’s Olympics is just beginning for most of the country’s finest track and field exponents as the European season gets into full swing.
In fact, the sport’s biggest circuit could be said to be well and truly up and running tonight, when the opening meet of the prestigious Golden League series takes place in Paris.
For South African stars, mounting a bid for the Olympics or any other global championship, depending on the year, must be a two-phase operation, given that the domestic season takes place so early in the year. And after the ambitious talk of Olympic medals which accompanied many of the fine results achieved from January to March, the European season has started with a series of reality checks, both for our leading athletes and for those who have backed them for glory. Take shot- putter Burger Lambrechts. Throws of 20,55m and 20,56m at home seemed to make him an outside medal chance, but in the first couple of major meets on the European circuit, numerous athletes have gone well past that. As a two-time world championship finalist, he’s still a medal chance, but no one’s going to throw him a gong just for turning up.
Phase one was undoubtedly a success this year, with more than 40 athletes getting the nod from Athletics South Africa (ASA) to press their Olympic claims in Europe, courtesy of having achieved the International Amateur Athletic Federation’s A qualifying standards at home. But phase two is a new start.
As many of those chosen to go to last year’s world championships in Seville are well aware, times and distances recorded in the first quarter of the year mean nothing in August and September, except perhaps in giving athletes confidence that they can achieve a certain standard. But with the tough ASA standards having to be achieved before the national body finalises its team for consideration by the National Olympic Committee (Nocsa) in August, it really is a whole new campaign.
For some, that new start is already in the (recent) past and the signs are good. Take Llewellyn Herbert, distraught to be forced out of last year’s world championships by injury when at least a repeat of his silver in 1997 was on the cards. Herbert has shown unequivocally that he is back this year, although his position atop the world standings after an altitude-assisted 48,37 seconds early in the year was usurped by Briton Chris Rawlinson, who clocked 48,22 in Milan on June 7. That’s not a hugely significant achievement in itself – the winning time in Sydney will doubtless be a lot faster – but given that Rawlinson wasn’t among the finalists in Seville, it’s possibly an indication that, as so often happens in Olympic years, the level of competition is increasing.
Herbert made his European debut in Helsinki a week ago, winning in a pedestrian – by his standards – 49,42 seconds. “He’s not supposed to be running 47 seconds now. Wait until Paris,” said manager Peet van Zyl in reference to tonight’s Golden League opener.
After Paris, Herbert will be spending a fortnight at a Swiss training camp with Frank Fredericks. Coach Jannie van Rooyen will be in attendance, as will Danny Williams, technical adviser to the legendary Ed Moses, who joined them this week to carry out some “fine-tuning” before he returns home briefly prior to a major European assault in the last four Golden League outings in August.
For someone like Herbert, Olympic qualification and selection is never going to be an issue. He’s going for gold. It’s a little harder, though, for some on the fringes.
Sprint star Mathew Quinn, for example, has also started his European campaign, with races in Ireland and St Petersburg in Russia. So far, hampered by atrocious weather conditions, he’s been clocking times around 10,50 seconds, well off the ASA standard of 10,25 and even further away from selection given Nocsa’s stated aim of taking athletes who can reach “at least the semifinals” of their events.
“We’re looking for that [qualification] to happen when he goes back in July and August,” said coach Marc Labuschagne. “We need a couple more races before he gets into that type of shape.”
Labuschagne said the aim was to get Quinn into the condition he was in when he clocked 10,19 seconds in the Engen Grand Prix final in Cape Town, which would set him up to run even faster at the Olympics. “I’m not going to talk about Mathew bringing a medal back from Sydney or anything stupid like that,” said the forthright coach. “This is a building block for 2004. If he gets to a semi in Sydney, I’ll be over the moon,” he said, adding that even a quarterfinal place would satisfy him.
Thus far, discus thrower Frantz Kruger, with 64,71m in Jena, Germany, and pole- vaulter Okkert Brits, with 5,85m in Ingolstadt, also in Germany, are leading a group of South Africans who have already qualified, but even better performances should be forthcoming as the number of qualifiers increases.
As the athletes set out to qualify, the wait is over for the swimmers, with the party of 14 twice the size of the group that went to Atlanta. That’s as good a measure as any of the improvement in South African swimming over four years, but there’s huge optimism that something even more tangible will happen in Sydney, in the shape of a record harvest of precious metal.
Brendon Dedekind, a serious contender in the 50m freestyle, has had to digest news of two-time gold medallist Alex Popov’s world record in the past week. “I think it lays down a challenge, but it also shows us going sub-22 seconds is humanly possible. Sometimes it becomes a mental barrier, so I think his going 21,6 has shown us it is possible to go 21. It’s just hyped up the 50m free even more and everyone’s going to train maybe a bit harder, focus a bit more and it’s just going to be a really exciting race in Sydney,” was his positive reply to the challenge.
The full team: Penny Heyns (100/200m breaststroke), Sarah Poewe (100/200m breaststroke), Mandy Loots (100/200m butterfly), Helene Muller (50/100m freestyle), Charlene Wittstock (100/200m backstroke), Renate du Plessis (100m butterfly), Brendon Dedekind (50/100m freestyle), Ryk Neethling (400/1500m freestyle), Terence Parkin (200m breaststroke, 200/400m individual medley), Theo Verster (100/200m butterfly), Roland Schoeman (50/100m freestyle), Brett Petersen (100m breaststroke), Simon Thirsk (4x100m medley relay), Nick Folker (4×100 freestyle relay).