ATHLETICS: Julian Drew
MANY of South Africa’s best middle distance athletes will not be in East London on Saturday when the trials for the world cross country championships take place. Three of South Africa’s four world class women have decided the March world championships in Turin do not feature in their plans for 1997, while Zola Pieterse is available for the championships but will miss the trials to compete in a half marathon in Japan.
Both Elana Meyer and Colleen de Reuck – who placed fifth at last year’s world cross country championships in Stellenbosch – are concentrating their efforts on the marathon this year. Olympic 1 500m finalist Gwen Griffiths has decided to compete at the world indoor championships in Paris in March after a series of disappointing results at the world cross country championships where she has never achieved her true potential.
The absence of these three has robbed South Africa of its only real chance of a medal at the championships where with four women to count in the team event there was a chance of a top three finish.
The men’s top middle distance performer of recent years will also be missing from the trials after national 5 000m record-holder Shadrack Hoff underwent surgery in Holland on Tuesday. Hoff developed pains in his groin area before a meeting in Paris last year during his build-up to the Olympics. He continued competing and had a miserable Olympics although he turned in several classy performances at home including a fast win at the national 10km championships in November.
He was diagnosed as having a bladder problem but when he went for a check-up in Europe while competing on the World Cross Challenge circuit he found out that he had been running with a hernia since June. “The doctor couldn’t believe that Shadrack had turned in the kind of performances he produced last year in that condition,” said Hoff’s coach Kenny Bouwer of Pretoria Correctional Services.
“Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise that it’s happened now though because Shadrack will rest for a month and then start preparing for the European track season and now that we know what was wrong I feel sure that he will go much faster than his 5 000m record later in the year.”
Hoff’s training partner Simon Morolong will also miss the trials after returning this week from his Christmas break at home in the Free State where he didn’t do much training.
Bouwer will still provide several of the favourites for the men’s race, however. His Correctional Services squad includes Olympic 5 000m athlete John Morapedi, world junior 5 000m bronze medallist Aaron Gabonewe who has moved up to the senior ranks this year, Laban Nkete, Andries Khulu and Johannes Job.
Patrick Kaotsane, who won the first trials race in 1993, is making a comeback after a serious knee injury and will be the dark horse in the strong Correctional Services pack.
The favourite for the men’s race, however, should be Olympic 10 000m runner Hendrick Ramaala who is expected back from Europe in time for Saturday’s race. Enjoying his first year of full-time athletics after graduating in law from Wits University last year, Ramaala has posted some impressive performances on the World Cross Challenge circuit where he has been getting used to the rather different conditions he will encounter in Turin.
Although form at the end of December is a poor indicator of form three months down the line, his third place in Durham just two seconds behind Kenya’s phenomenal 3 000m world record-holder Daniel Komen must have boosted his morale. According to Athletics South Africa’s (ASA) selection criteria two-thirds of the nine-strong men’s team will be chosen based on the results of the trials with the top three at last September’s South African cross country championships in Pretoria filling the remaining places.
That means that Tsunaki Kalamore (lst), Stephen Phofi (2nd) and Ezeal Thlobo (3rd) are guaranteed a place in the team although both Kalamore and Thlobo have opted to run the trials. ASA have also indicated that they will consider the form of any athletes competing overseas who do not run in the trials.
With the absent Pieterse having won in Pretoria she will automatically join runner-up Paulina Phaho in the six-strong women’s team. Alta Verster is expected to win in East London but she will be pushed by two of Bouwer’s athletes in Louisa Leballo and Anchen Rose and Charne Rademeyer should also be a threat. In the junior women’s race the prodigious Rene Kalmer is expected to be a runaway winner.