The 2002 international athletics season takes another tired step towards its conclusion on Saturday when Paris hosts the 18th International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) grand prix final.
Despite its grand title the final has never really lived up to its billing. That in spite of annual increases in the prize money. The problem is that the event inevitably comes at the end of the season, weeks after athletes have been performing at their peaks, and as the European summer starts slipping towards autumn.
For four of the year’s top athletes –Marion Jones, Hicham El Guerrouj, Felix Sanchez and Ana Guevara — their 2002 targets were met last weekend when victories in Berlin qualified them for a share of the 50kg of gold bullion on offer for seven straight wins in the Golden League. Each one of them will be in Paris on Saturday if only because their failure to do so would deny them the right to their golden payout.
Sadly, South Africans haven’t featured prominently in this year’s grand prix. This is in part due to the bouquet of events that comprise this year’s series. There are 18 events in all, 10 of them men’s. Among those missing out in 2002 are the men’s 800m runners, high hurdlers and discus throwers, while there’s no women’s high jump. That means four of our Commonwealth champions — Mbualeni Mulaudzi, Shaun Bownes, Frantz Kruger and Hestrie Cloete –have had to find other means of boosting their income on the international circuit this season.
Of the prominent South Africans whose specialist events have been part of the grand prix, Llewellyn Herbert has missed out on the biggest possible payout. Injury-wrecked seasons are becoming too frequent for the Olympic bronze-medallist, who lies 14th overall in the 400m hurdles.
Such has been Okkert Brits’s history of failure at championship level that it would probably take more than a quarter share of the Golden League’s gold bars to persuade him to trade in the gold medal he won in the pole vault at the Commonwealth Games. Still, he hasn’t shone half as brightly on the European circuit as he did in Manchester and stands just 17th on the grand prix list. Janus Robberts is another who could have done better had he devoted more time to Europe. He’s 22nd in the shot. Heide Seyerling, an Olympic finalist in Sydney, is 15th in the 400m.
In fact, the leading South African in the 2002 Grand Prix is someone who didn’t even go to Manchester. It’s fortunate for Chris Harmse that just five of the 28 meetings on this year’s calendar fall on a Sunday. His abstention from competing on Sundays persuaded him to decline his place in the Commonwealth team but has not had too serious an impact on his progress in the grand prix where he stands 10th in the hammer.
After Saturday one more significant meeting remains. The World Cup, which takes place in Madrid on September 20 and 21, is another event that rarely lives up to its grand title. Rather more of South Africa’s big names will be there than in Paris this weekend as the men’s team competing under the African banner seek to complete a hat-trick of victories against four continental sides (Asia, Europe, the Americas and Oceania) as well as Great Britain, the United States and Germany.
} Stage set for classic
‘ Deon Potgieter
^ In bygone days the most exciting, eagerly anticipated and crowd-pleasing fights staged in South Africa were those between two local fighters, usually for a national title. Those days have seemingly returned, except that the titles now being contested are second-tier world titles.
Following the successes of the World Boxing Union featherweight clash between ring icons Lehlonohlo Ledwaba and Vuyani Bungu, fight fans can now prepare for another allSouth African world title fight.
Three-time world champion Masibulele ”Hawk” Makepula will make the first defence of his International Boxing Organisation flyweight world title at Carnival City on Saturday night against former two-time world champion Mzukisi ”Laciar” Sikali. Both fighters hail from the Eastern Cape, and hometown bragging rights will be as strong a motivating factor in this fight as the title.
Sikali is of a higher calibre than most of Makepula’s previous opponents. The two have two former foes in common — Baby Jake Matlala and Roy Doliguez. Sikali lost a 12-round points decision to Matlala in 1992, while Makepula won a controversial points decision over Baby Jake in 2000.
Makepula made hard work of out-pointing Doliguez over 10 rounds at the Carousel last year, while the Sikali vs Doliguez bout ended in a technical draw following an unfortunate clash of heads in the third round earlier this year.
Sikali, who previously held the World Boxing Union junior-flyweight and super-flyweight world titles, has faced a more varied array of fistic talents and is more ring-wise than the Hawk. Makepula, however, brings a large heart into the ring and when pushed delivers his blows with precision and power.
Sikali has been stopped twice while the Hawk is yet to visit the canvas.