ATHLETICS: Julian Drew
AT the Old Mutual South African Cross Country Trials on Saturday the cream of South Africas middle-distance running talent will do battle over the same Stellenbosch course that in six weeks time will play host to the world cross country championships.
The world championships will be the biggest and most prestigious athletics event this country has ever staged and it is important that a good impression is made both in terms of its organisation and the performance of our athletes.
As one of the International Amateur Athletic Federations (IAAF) premier events its president Primo Nebiolo will be in attendance. He is also an important member of the International Olympic Committee and the man who will be spearheading Romes bid for the 2004 Olympic Games. A well- presented and efficiently organised event will send out the right kind of signals to the city which is expected to be one of Cape Towns biggest rivals in the race for the 2004 Olympics.
Any slip-ups, however, will be quickly seized upon by the large contingent of foreign media and no doubt Nebiolo himself.
But just as important as the propaganda value that a slick, well stage-managed affair would provide to Cape Town, is the impact these championships can have on the image and morale of the long neglected middle-distance running constituency in this country. With signs of an upswing in the fortunes of this sector of athletics over the past 12 months, the opportunity must not be lost to keep that momentum going.
Improved performances at these championships in front of a home audience will do just that. This improvement will require a structured and well- planned programme to ensure that the athletes reach the championships in the best possible shape to deliver their optimum level of performance.
A long-term plan along the lines of that set up by the National Olympic Committee of South Africa (Nocsa) to prepare the Olympic squad for Atlanta would have been appropriate. It is alarming, however, to see that no such plan is yet in place and as the athletes assemble in Cape Town they still do not know what they have to do to make the team. No doubt Athletics South Africa (ASA) will reveal its plans after the trials but, with the strategic importance of the world championships, such information should have been available a long time ago.
Many of those who will be vying for places on the team are not full-time athletes and need to plan their commitments well in advance. There are also Olympic hopefuls both for the marathon, whose trials take place in two weeks, and on the track who need to fit in any training camps with their overall preparations for Atlanta. After the fiasco which accompanied the preparations for last years world cross country championships there was a mix up over selection and an ill-conceived training camp in Kenya that had to be aborted one would have thought ASA would have applied itself timeously to the task and come up with a well- thought-out plan.
In Saturdays action there will be considerable interest in the senior womens race where the former two-time world cross country champion Zola Pieterse (who won the title in 1985 and 1986 for England) will make her competitive comeback at the top level after giving birth to a daughter in October.
While her one-time rival Elana Meyer will not be competing after returning to training in December from a hip injury, Pieterse will still receive a stern test from the Natal duo of Colleen de Reuck and Gwen Griffiths. De Reuck, who now lives in Colorado where she has been campaigning very successfully on the American road circuit, is one of the athletes who still harbours aspirations of making the Olympic marathon team. To do so she will have to beat the qualifying time at the South African marathon championships in Cape Town in two weeks time. She suffered the disappointment of winning the extremely tough Honolulu Marathon in December but missing the required time because of the humidity.
She has the talent to make the team but if she runs in the marathon two weeks later she will not be in the best shape to tackle the world cross country championships which is the most competitive distance race on the athletics calendar.
Griffiths and Charne Rademeyer have presumably already been selected for the team after finishing in the top two places at last Septembers national championships. Pieterse and De Reuck should also make the team and competition for the remaining two places will see established runners like Melody Marcus, Juliet Prowse, Prudence Zwane, Alta Verster and Anchen Rose attempting to hold off newcomers to the senior ranks like Anna Motsoari.
In the senior mens race Ezeal Thlobo, Owen McHelm and Makhosonke Fika are also presumably in the team after taking the top three spots at the national championships. Competition for the other six places should be every bit as fierce as it was at last years trials when the top seven were involved in a blanket finish.
Hendrick Ramaala would have been one of the favourites but he is short on training after a knee injury and will be more than happy to scrape into the team. The strongest contingent of athletes will come from Northern Gauteng where the star-studded Correctional Services squad of Kenny Bouwer is based. Shadrack Hoff, Meck Mothuli, John Morapedi, Laban Nkete and Simon Morolong all have the pedigree to make the team although their training has not been cross country-oriented in the build-up to the trials.
In the junior races, 15-year-old Rene Kalmer will be looking to teach her older rivals a thing or two in the girls race where the talented Potchefstroom schoolgirl, Lauren Hunter, makes a welcome return after a series of injuries. In the boys race another of Bouwers squad, Aaron Gabonewe, looks to be the one to beat.