Athletics South Africa dropped a bombshell on Tuesday when they omitted national 800m champion Hezekiel Sepeng from their Olympic team to Athens in August.
ASA chief executive Banele Sindani, in announcing the provisional athletics team, said that the ASA board had decided not to select the 800m specialist because he had not adhered to strict selection criteria on too many occasions.
Sepeng, who beat world indoor champion and fellow South African Mbulaeni Mulaudzi in a photo finish at the Absa SA Champs in Durban two weeks ago, failed to compete in at least two Absa Series meetings this year.
Sepeng — 800m silver medal-winner at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta — was left out on the strength of that, and past indiscretions which included him going missing and failing to arrive at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002, and then failing to comply with selection criteria leading up to the IAAF World Championships in Paris last year.
”The Board stressed that as one of the senior and most respected athletes in our country Sepeng ought not only to lead by example, he has to be seen to be leading by example. ”He cannot behave as a rogue and just do as he pleases,” said Sindani. – Sapa