ARGENTINA SLAM SA’S ‘POLITICS IN SPORT’

ARGENTINA’S field hockey coach hit out at South Africa’s decision to withdraw from the Olympic Games even though his team will benefit the most from their absence. “Politics should not mix with sport,” Alejandro Verga said after Argentina defeated Japan 1-0 to take the seventh place in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Osaka. “We have a chance to go to Sydney because of the bad things that are happening in the world of sport.” The National Olympic Committee of South Africa (NOCSA) decided last month against fielding the men’s hockey team which qualified for the Olympics as the continental champions from Africa. NOCSA spokesman Chris Day said in Johannesburg the committee was not convinced the Olympic squad would finish in the top eight and it had not met a rule that the “demographics of the nation should be represented in the team.”