Three strikes and you are out, cried Athletics South Africa (ASA) CEO Banele Sindani, as Atlanta Olympics silver medallist Hezekiel Sepeng was unceremoniously shown the door for pushing his luck once too often.
Speaking at the announcement of the provisional Olympic team at ASA’s Houghton head office this week, Sindani clearly had had enough of the misconduct from one of the country’s most talented, but often most wayward, sons.
But for the fans of probably the ‘coolest†athlete in the business, who are not expecting to see the former junior world champion strutting his stuff in designer Oakley’s, body hugging suit and a flashy smile ever again, do not despair. He and his coach Jean Verster have already enlisted the help of sports legal, specialist Elliot Wood, who was down to meet ASA on Thursday morning to ‘sort out a way forwardâ€.
As proof that he has gone out of his way to accommodate the governing body’s wishes, Sepeng had asked his wife to have a Caesarean section two weeks earlier than required for the birth of their second boy, Hezekiel Junior, to allow him to attend the Olympic trials in Durban, where he reclaimed the national title by beating close friend and world indoor 800m champion, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi.
What led to the confusion is that he took part in the required two Absa meetings but not over his specialist distance. He opted to turn out in the 1500m event, which many athletes do in the early season to improve on the endurance phase of their training.
I have a sneaking suspicion that a bit of grovelling on Sepeng’s part, coupled with a round-table discussion will result in his re-inclusion in the team, if not for any other reason than the fact that ASA will have to deliver on its statement that athletics is the cornerstone of the Olympics and as such deserves the lion’s share of National Olympic Committee funding.
Sepeng is a realistic medallist. In what some are saying is one of the weakest 800m fields in years, one can see him and Mulaudzi pushing each other to greater heights and a one-two for South Africa may be on the cards.
Sindani also gave the impression that although he was bearing the board’s message, there was some way of resolving the matter. Questioned repeatedly about a conclusive statement, he would not be drawn announcing categorically that Sepeng would not line up in Athens.
He chose, rather, to say: ‘Every case can be reviewed, but there must be new evidence on which an appeal must be based. I don’t know where that would come from.â€
And therein lies the rub. Sepeng has not, in effect, been called to a disciplinary hearing, so there’s no real decision he can appeal against. This may be the legal loophole that will finally rule him out or let him back into the team.
Verster was gobsmacked at the turn of events. ‘We didn’t see this coming; we even went to the High Performance training camp in Pretoria last week; if they knew we were going to be excluded from the team why did they waste our time?
‘We sent ASA our detailed plan, which included the distances we intended running, around mid-February. I even phoned to ensure they had received the fax, so yes they knew exactly what we intended doing, well before we did it.
‘Because we were told to go to Nigeria as part of the criteria to stay in the team, we went. Hez didn’t want to go but he went to ensure he kept himself clear with the authorities.
Because of this our season was late in starting, we decided to try and race him into shape in two indoor meets but it didn’t work and he came home to start on some endurance work. That is why we ran the two 1 500m races,†the coach explained. Â
The first strike for Sepeng came when he went walkabout before the Commonwealth Games.
The Potchefstroom-based athlete then had a second fresh-air swing when he did not meet the selection criteria for last year’s Paris World Championships.