Grant Shimmin olympics On Wednesday, August 16, Sam Ramsamy, president of the country’s National Olympic Committee (Nocsa), will read out a list of track and field athletes at a press conference and, barring injuries to members of the teams within the overall squad which necessitate calling up a replacement, South Africa’s Olympic travelling party will be complete. It would have seemed unthinkable at the beginning of this year, but one of those who seems destined to be left on the outside looking in is a man who was crowned world champion in his discipline just three years ago at the tender age of 21, javelin thrower Marius Corbett. The gentle giant from Potchefstroom, known as “Muis” (Mouse) by coach Terseus Liebenberg, failed to meet the Athletics South Africa (ASA) qualifying standard of 82m in either of two outings in Europe, in London on August 5 and Linz, Austria, three days later, meaning he had failed to fulfil the ASA qualifying criterion of meeting the standard in the six to eight weeks prior to the announcement of the team. It’s a new requirement this year after the debacle of last August’s world championships in Seville, where a host of athletes who had qualified during the domestic season months earlier failed dismally to repeat that form on the global stage. Corbett did reach 82m in the home season this year, after recovering from an operation last year to release a nerve in his forearm that was causing him excruciating pain when he threw. However, he also battled with a back injury during the winter, hence his delay, on medical advice, in heading for Europe. Now, short of Corbett and Liebenberg managing to pluck another meeting out of a hat before the cut-off date of Saturday, it’s over for the mighty Muis for this year. One meeting that is on is the Weltklasse Golden League gathering in Zurich on Friday night. Unfortunately, it doesn’t contain a men’s javelin competition and, even if it did, it’s doubtful Corbett would have cracked an invitation on his form in the injury-ravaged past 18 months. What may well be decided in Zurich is the make-up of South Africa’s 800m contingent for Sydney, with five runners having gone under the mark of 1:45,60 in the past three weeks and only three entries allowed for the games. While Hezekiel Sepeng, second-fastest among those, could never be left out on the strength of his record (silvers in Atlanta, Kuala Lumpur and Seville), what makes the situation interesting is that reigning world indoor champion Johan Botha is fourth on the list behind youngster Werner Botha and Gideon van Oudtshoorn, both of whom qualified in Hechtel, Belgium, a week ago. With Johan Botha apparently running the B race in Zurich, his time could prove all-important but if, as expected, his namesake and Van Oudtshoorn also crack invitations to the event, that could make for a compelling sideshow within the context of the race.
Two men who have reached their required standards late in the day are hurdler Shaun Bownes, who has now qualified three times in just over a week in the 110m event, while shot putter Burger Lambrechts, twice a finalist at the world championships and a gold medallist at the Commonwealth Games, finally exceeded the required 19,70m in Lisbon last weekend. Lambrechts had been laid low by a bout of encephalitis in mid-year and faced the real possibility of missing out. One thing that will be a disappointment to ASA and Nocsa is the fact that just three women athletes have qualified: high jumper Hestrie Cloete; veteran middle-distance star Elana Meyer, who will reprise her Barcelona event, the 10 000m, after deciding not to contest the marathon; and Heide Seyerling in the 400m. Nocsa, of course, has still to run the rule over the list that will be handed in by ASA, but next month’s Olympics shape up as an interesting test of ASA’s new qualification policy this year. Provided the results returned by those who make the grade are an improvement on those in Seville, there can be few complaints.