Running at altitude, South African athletes are going to struggle to beat the qualifying marks for the world championships
ATHLETICS:Julian Drew
SOUTH AFRICA’S top athletes go to Potchefstroom’s peculiarly shaped Kenneth McArthur Oval this weekend knowing that a national title along with a performance which betters Athletic South Africa’s (ASA) qualifying standards will automatically gain them selection in the squad for August’s world championships in Athens.
This weekend’s South African track and field championships come a month earlier than usual this year. The move forward is to provide more time to prepare properly for the world championships, and although ASA will allow qualification until the end of the season in April, those athletes who have recorded their marks by this weekend will have nearly five months to lay the foundations for Athens.
While the tightly packed stands around Potchefstroom’s track provide for a great atmosphere it is surprising that it has been chosen as the venue for the world championships trials. As an altitude venue (1 351m) ASA’s reward for victory with a qualifying mark is clearly discriminatory against the middle-distance athletes and race walkers. Even though ASA has indicated that it will adjust accordingly for altitude in the explosive events, there is no chance of anybody recording a qualifying mark in an event beyond 800m.
With just the Engen Grand Prix final in Cape Town on April 8 remaining as a coastal event this season, ASA runs the risk of sending an all-white team to Athens as nobody has yet qualified in the middle- distances. Of course, it should be a mere formality for Olympic silver medallist Hezekiel Sepeng to make the grade in the 800m but should the wind blow on April 8 in Cape Town there is very little chance of any other black athletes joining him.
In fact, so far only six athletes have qualified for Athens and with altitude conversions two of those fall away. Llewellyn Herbert’s 49.27 400m hurdles time in Pretoria equates to a 49.68 at sea level while Johan Venter’s 10.24 100m time – also in Pretoria – converts to 10.33. Ironically both these conversions are better than the IAAF’s “A” standard but not the far more stringent ASA standards – 49.30 and 10.25 respectively.
Even sprint queen Adri de Jongh loses her 22.82 200m qualifier in Pretoria which falls eight hundredths of a second shy of ASA’s mark of 22.94 but comfortably inside the IAAF’s 23.24. She at least has the consolation of making the cut with her best 400m time of the season of 50.91 at the Test match in Pretoria. The conversion to 51.31 is still better than ASA’s standard of 51.54.
The other three qualifiers are Okkert Brits and Riaan Botha in the pole vault and Burger Lambrechts in the shot put. The throws and vertical jumps are not considered to have an advantage at altitude.
While most South African competitors in the sprint events and horizontal jumps are unwilling to admit that altitude improves their performances, scientific evidence – not to mention that provided by the likes of Bob Beamon, Jim Hines, Lee Evans, Pietro Mennea et al – suggests differently.
ASA is therefore right to apply altitude conversion factors to qualifying marks in the interests of fairness but the middle- distance athletes have still not had a fair bite at the cherry because the IAAF doesn’t allow qualifying marks which have been converted down from altitude marks in the distance events.
So although there will be some exciting contests in Potchefstroom over the weekend there are unlikely to be too many athletes who will qualify for Athens once the selectors have finished with their calculators. In the 100m and 200m Western Province youngster Marcus la Grange will be out to usurp the more seasoned reputations of Johan Venter and Shaun Powell. The men’s sprints are difficult races to call but if any of these athletes want to go to Greece they will have to dip under 10.14 in the 100m and 20.36 in the 200m which is very fast sprinting by local standards.
The 400m will also be a close race with Arnaud Malherbe the favourite to win but he will be pushed all the way by Liod Kgopeng, Hendrick Moganyetsi, Alfred Visagie and Herman de Jager.
Llewellyn Herbert should win easily and he will be looking for a time of 48.90, but among the women only Adri de Jongh looks capable of getting another qualifying time in the sprints.
Hezekiel Sepeng will race the 800m and he will hope to pull training partners Johan Botha and Jurgens Kotze under the 1:45.60 standard. Sepeng’s main rival, Marius van Heerden, will race the 1 500m after coming back from injury.
New national high jump record holder Gavin Lendes jumped 2.27m in Port Elizabeth last month and must improve by one centimetre to satisfy ASA. Discus throwers Frits Potgieter and Frantz Kruger will have to improve their personal bests to reach the 62.50m qualifying distance while Philip Spies will need to have fully recovered from his back problems to go over 82.00m. ark in Port Elizabeth next weekend.
ENDS