In a fit of national pride, I recently boasted to a Canadian Internet friend that South Africans would bring home two golds, three silvers and maybe a few bronzes from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships that get under way in Paris on Saturday.
Quick as a wink my Internet buddy came back: ‘Who are these athletes? We would like to look out for them.â€
I had been caught with my tracksuit around my ankles: crunch time had arrived, a passing comment had come home to haunt me. Who were these athletes who could make our wildest dreams come true and bring home more metal than we had won collectively since readmission?
The first one was simple: Hestrie Cloete must be a racing certainty for gold. The elegant, tall, Coligny housewife had swept all before her in the IAAF Golden League meeting that preceded the Paris event.
Two metres has not been a challenge thus far, she even went on to set a South African, Commonwealth and African high jump record.
That was one winner, now for the other. The 800m specialist, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, must be as close as dammit to getting gold. Like Cloete he has been flawless in his preparation, chalking up one victory after another. A small note of concern is that he was beaten by friend and room-mate Hezekiel Sepeng on his last outing.
He may have let his friend through as a confidence booster or he may be going off the boil — one hopes it is the former. Unlike Sepeng, he is very conservative in his outlook on life. Sepeng is the brassy one, dropping one-liners at press conferences with consummate ease, while Mulaudzi sits quietly in the background preferring to let his spikes do the talking.
With that out of the way, I had to find three also-rans — could it honestly be done? Our history after re-admission certainly didn’t show it. Since 1997 South Africa has produced just two world champions and three silver medallists at the World Championships.
Marius Corbett delivered gold in 1997 in the javelin and, at the last event, Cloete won in the high jump. The now-defunct mens 4x100m relay team sprang a surprise and pulled off a silver on the final day in Edmonton, Canada.Â
I am not sure if it would be considered cheating or not but big Ernest van Dyk looks set to take at least a silver in the 1 500m wheelchair event. The cheating stems from the fact that he has been invited to compete in the 1 500m as a demonstration event and even if he should win, the medal will not be classed as an able-bodied silver.
If ever an athlete deserves a medal purely for trying, it must be our most talented but wayward son, Sepeng. He has a few versions of the silver in his closet, and there is no doubt that he has legs to beat both Mulaudzi and the Kenyan onslaught that turns out surprise winners with monotonous regularity. He has been known to commit tactical suicide in the past, running off the pace and getting boxed in on the home straight.
It is a testamant to his awesome talent that he managed to get out of the bundle to pocket a silver at the Atlanta Olympic Games.
To discount the lanky high jumper, Jacques Freitag, as a medal contender after a long injury-enforced lay-off would be foolish. He has one win in the build-up meetings to his credit, albeit in the Helsinki meeting that most of the competitors chose to sit out to rest for the big day. My personal thoughts are that he is a tad shy of competition practice and will, in all likelihood, challenge for a bronze medal.
Aah, and what of heart-throb Llewellyn Herbert in the 400m hurdles? He is as predictable as the weather at the moment. He could rise to the highest heights or end up scratching with the turkeys. Just writing him off would be enough motivation for the East Rand’s favourite son to die trying for any sort of medal.
At the risk of upsetting the blond bombshell I will put him down as an outside chance for a bronze medal in the 400m hurdles and a very long shot for any sort of medal in the 4x400m relay.
Shaun Bownes (110m hurdles) and Okkert Brits (pole vault) fit into the same catergory for me.
Both can deliver the goods on the day but, for different reasons, will, in all likelihood, not make it to the podium. Bownes is not in the finest shape at the moment and, by his own admission, is battling with his technique, knocking over more hurdles than he clears.
Brits is another kettle of fish altogether. He has been there, done that and has enough T-shirts to fill a closet. But his ability to perform consistently at the highest level of pole-vaulting has to be questioned. For him it is all about coping with pressure in a highly technical event that demands consistency. As not much is expected from the tall Bolander, this may well be the ideal platform to leap from and bring home some sort of hardware.
This leaves discus-thrower Frantz Kruger as the remaining medal potential. The big Bloemfontein doctor has recently moved his home base to Cape Town as part of his long-term plans to be with his coach. He has always maintained that his primary focus is next year’s Athens Olympics, anything in between is a bonus.
But the World Championships are now and the Olympics next year —and he will have to deliver some sort of credible performance as a milestone on the road to Athens. For my part he should be good enough for a bronze at least.Â
As yet, hammer-thrower Chris Harmse has not made the qualifying standard and looks to be out of the reckoning both as a competitor and as a potential medallist.
While the track and field team have occupied the media’s minds the marathon team have quietly been doing what they do best — logging up the miles.
If the team as a whole is going to live up to the hype and bring home more medals than ever before, the road guys are going to have to deliver the goods, something a ‘South African†hasn’t done since Mark Plaatjies won gold, running for his adopted United States.
On potential alone Hendrik Ramaala should win, having twice claimed silver in the IAAF World Half-Marathon championships.
Possibly the most exciting talent to emerge in the past five years is Ian Syster, who exploded on to the scene when he won the national marathon championships as an individual. He could be our next big star.