Grant Shimmin HOCKEY
The South African Hockey Association (Saha) has decided to appeal to the executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in an attempt to overturn the exclusion of their men’s side from the Olympic team for Sydney.
The decision is an indication of their determination, in the words of president Clare Digby, to “go the whole way” in trying to ensure the side’s participation.
Next week probably represents a watershed in the saga that began when the National Olympic Committee (Nocsa) announced that the team, which officially qualified by winning the All Africa Games title last September, would not be accompanying their female counterparts to Australia. Nocsa believed that they fulfilled neither the performance criterion for selection – being able to finish at least ninth in the 12-team event – nor the universality criterion which, in a South African context, is taken to mean a significant proportion of the team being from previously disadvantaged communities.
Ironically, when the IOC board meets in Lausanne next week, it will be just a couple of days after the completion of the second of two four-nation tournaments in this year’s Olympic host country, which involves South Africa, Australia, Germany and India. The latter two nations qualified under the recently instituted system, agreed by the IOC and the International Hockey Federation (FIH), which sees all continental champions qualifying directly. The new system is in line with the FIH view that universality also means as wide as possible a geographical representation. Germany and India have had the opportunity of a dress rehearsal for an Olympic participation that is not in doubt.
The IOC board’s session will also follow a meeting, scheduled for Monday, between the Nocsa executive and Minister of Sports and Recreation Ngconde Balfour.
Asked on Wednesday about that meeting, Nocsa head Sam Ramsamy said it was simply one in a series of “routine” get- togethers held periodically with the sports ministry. He denied it had been called specifically to discuss the hockey situation, although such a discussion has appeared on the cards for some time. “The decision on the hockey team has been made. That’s it,” Ramsamy said, echoing comments quoted earlier in the week that the door had been irrevocably slammed on the team.
Since the announcement of their exclusion, Digby has been tireless in her attempts to get the decision reversed and has stressed on numerous occasions that Saha would exhaust all avenues to achieve. This was despite the contents of a letter from Nocsa at the time of the decision, which is quoted in Saha’s appeal document.
In the letter, sent on February 9, the day the exclusion was announced, Nocsa stressed: “We expect Saha to accept this decision in the true spirit of sportsmanship and not to engage in any unnecessary public debate which might be harmful to both hockey and the Olympic movement.”
By appealing directly to the IOC, Saha has gone further than that and Digby is hopeful of a quick decision in her organisation’s favour. “I’m led to believe the decision will be made quickly. We see no reason why there shouldn’t be an instant decision,” she said. “For reasons of timing, this is our only opportunity. We need the decision now. If we got a decision in August, we’d take it, but for all practical purposes, we need it now.”
The Saha appeal has been ratified by the FIH and, in fact, was directed through the global hockey body. In a covering letter accompanying the appeal document, FIH president Juan Calzado points out: “According to global hockey standards, the South African men’s team is more than qualified to participate in the Sydney Games. It is our common [FIH and IOC] wish that the best athletes should compete in Sydney regardless of race and colour … the best hockey team of the African continent and the best South African players selected on performance criteria.”
ENDS