Athletics: Julian Drew
THERE has in the past been considerable criticism of the way in which South Africa’s athletes have been prepared and selected for major championships. On Thursday a bold and positive plan was announced by the National Olympic Committee of South Africa (NOCSA) and Athletics South Africa (ASA) to prepare the athletics team for next year’s Olympic Games in Atlanta.
“This plan will help our athletes prepare for Atlanta and also protect them from over competing. It is something that is long overdue but after this we are going to work on a four-year planning cycle that focuses on the Olympics and incorporates other major competitions like the world championships as milestones along the way,” said ASA general secretary Banele Sindani.
The man behind the plan is top British athletics coach Wilf Paish who was brought out in July under NOCSA’s Operation Excellence to assist ASA in the preparation of its elite athletes for Atlanta. Paish is one of Britain’s most experienced coaches who has attended six Olympic Games as British national coach. He has coached three athletes to Olympic medals and more than 100 athletes to international level covering every discipline on the athletics programme.
The squad an-nounced on Thursday contains 23 athletes who have all achieved the “A” qualifying standard for Atlanta. It is still possible, however, to get into the team for Atlanta by achieving the required qualifying standard before the team is finalised and it is also possible for present members of the squad to be dropped if they lose form in the run-up to the Olympics.
What is so encouraging about the plan is that it provides the opportunity for those who have already demonstrated their potential to prepare properly for Atlanta. “What we have to realise is that the odds are stacked against us. It is a far easier task to win the Rugby World Cup than an athletics gold medal at the Olympics simply in terms of the number of countries and athletes competing,” said Paish.
“Anybody who is involved in athletics realises that, but it will not be easy to convince the South African public. But if we plan and work together properly as a team we can reduce those odds. And that team isn’t just myself and the athletes. It’s everybody from the team management to the media, the South African public and even the person who adjusts the high-jump bar on a Tuesday afternoon for an athlete who’s trying to get into the team,”
“We have chosen 23 athletes to go into intensive training for the Olympics, but in order to make it work we need total co-operation from their coaches, their gym instructors and anybody else who is involved with them. We are going to monitor performance continually so that each month the coaches will send us a prospective coaching schedule outlining what they intend to do with the athletes and in turn the athletes must send a perspective schedule outlining what they has done for the past month.
“We are also going to ensure they get proper medical support. They will undergo a thorough medical examination now so that if there are any problems we can provide remedial treatment. A lot of our black marathon and middle distance runners have poor nutritional backgrounds and could have liver enzyme problems so we need to look at every detail.
“We will require the medical and injury histories of every athlete. The NOCSA medical team will also conduct tests to provide a full physiological profile of each athlete which will also include nutrition. On top of that we will do a psychological profile to see if there are reasons why someone like Okkert Brits doesn’t perform well at major meets, or Hezekiel Sepeng does well at the majors but hasn’t fulfilled his overall expectations.,” said Paish.
One of the main problems for our top athletes this year has been that they had to compete in the long South African season which lasted from February until May and then compete in the world championships and other international fixtures without time to prepare properly in between. Next year Paish is going to ensure that this doesn’t happen.
“The Olympic athletes will have a double peak next year but the first peak will be at the Test match in February rather than at the national championships at the end of April. After the Test match they will stay together as a team and go to Durban for an acclimatisation period to train for two weeks in conditions similar to those in Atlanta. I’m also going to insist the athletes are not allowed to over-compete. Okkert Brits competed in 37 competitions last year. Is that the correct build-up for an Olympic final? I don’t want to see our middle distance runners racing all over Europe just to win a few dollars.
“Our middle distance stars won’t compete at the national championships. Athletes like Sepeng, Hoff, Ramaala, Meyer and Griffiths will form part of what I call protected athletes. The throwers and sprinters need competitions but for athletes from the 400m hurdles to the marathon it is difficult to hold a peak for a long time and they must not race too often,” said Paish.
Paish has done a lot of homework since he arrived three months ago, and he is confident that South Africa can win medals at the Olympics. “If we are positive and prepare properly we can realistically hope for three medals in Atlanta. That is not just a guess. I’m saying that as an informed expert who has already been through the mill with three Olympic medallists. My first nomination is the men’s 4x400m relay team. We have four sub-46 seconds performers in the team that competed in Gothenburg and I believe that by getting the squad together regularly to train we can bridge the present gap.
“My second nomination is Karen van der Veen. She hasn’t really trained properly for the 400m hurdles and with the correct endurance training she can take a second off her last 200m. She also takes too many strides and I know I can save her seven strides over the first five hurdles. That is 14m which is an awful long way in a race like that.
“The other person I believe has the potential to win a medal is Philip Spies in the javelin if he works hard,” said Paish. To many those might seem like brash predictions, especially considering the level of competition in an event like the women’s 400m hurdles right now, but Paish is nothing but a pragmatist who believes in positive thinking.
But what of South Africa’s two best known athletes? “I’m a realist so I don’t make predictions on events like the marathon and pole vault because they are two of the most hazardous events on the programme. That doesn’t mean I think Elana Meyer and Okkert Brits can’t win a medal. Of course they can. I just don’t want to make any predictions because their events are so unpredictable,” claims Paish.
The Olympic squad is: Riaan Dempers (Sprints, 4x400m); Arnaud Malherbe (4x400m); Bobang Phiri (4x400m); Herman de Jager (4x400m); Hezekiel Sepeng (800m); Johan Botha (800m); Jurgens Kotze (800m); Shadrack Hoff (5 OOOm); Shadrack Mogotsi (3 000m Steeplechase); Grant Roberts (400m Hurdles, 4x400m reserve); Okkert Brits (Pole Vault); Roumen Koprivchin (Hammer); Gwen Griffiths (5 OOOm); Karen van der Veen (400m Hurdles); Elana Meyer (10 OOOm/marathon); Hendrick Ramaala (10 OOOm); Desire du Plessis (High Jump); Willie Mtolo (Marathon); Xolile Yawa (Marathon); Johannes Mabitle (Marathon); Lawrence Peu (Marathon); Martin Ndivheni (Marathon); Coleen de Reuck (Marathon).