ATHLETICS: Jon Swift
THERE are times in South African sport when you wonder whether the word “development” does not have the Orwellian connotation of separate but equal.
The All African Invitational athletic meeting to open the magnificently appointed new Johannesburg Stad-ium last weekend was just such an occasion.
A surprisingly sparse crowd had come on the Sunday to see some of the great names in world athletics; the incomparable Sergey Bubka and Rodion Gataullin in the polevault, Maria Mutola in the 800m, Samuel Matete in the 400m hurdles and Irina Privalova in the womens’
And of course Frankie Fredericks. the Namibia flash, who earned the biggest cheer of the day on Sunday just as he did in coming second to the seemingly ageless — and despite the urgings of the British tabloids, charming — Linford Christie the day before. They are great names. Well worth the schlep to Doornfontein to watch in the flesh. Something, one day perhaps, to tell the grandchildren about.
Bubka and Gataullin — along with our own Okkert Brits, embroiled in an appearance money wrangle with the organisers and a no-show at the meeting — the only men to better six metres in the event, battled it out attempting to break the six-metre barrier on South African soil. That both failed to achieve this was not from want of trying.
Mutola duly ran the rest of the field in the metric half-mile ragged, as did Matete in the one lap over the hurdles. Privalova was also real value for money, adding the 200m laurels to her 100m victory on the Saturday. So too was Fredericks in the men’s equivalent over the distance.
Yet the day fell somewhat flat. It was a two-day meeting which could easily have been completed in one – – and over two-and-a-half hours at that.
The major disappointment though came in the “development” races included to flesh out a slender
Not one of those “development” athletes was given the courtesy of being named in any other manner than “the boy in lane six” or “the girl in the lead”. It was simply not good enough. Development is about identifying people. Giving them personalities. Nurturing the talent inherent in those individuals.
They are real people. Young, unpolished and unsophisticated in the world of big competition perhaps. But they deserved to be identified every bit as much as did Christie, Fredericks, Bubka, Gataullin, Mutola, Matete and Privalova.