Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 114, January 2019 | Page 42

TRACK & FIELD
of this means that South Africa’s best will need to plan
their season with great care if they want to hit their
best form in Doha in October.
International Stars
The best of our track and field athletes such as Akani
Simbine, Caster Semenya, Ruswahl Samaai and
Luvo Manyonga are assured of invitations to the
Diamond League events due to their international
status, as is Dominique Scott-Efurd. For the rest of
the South African athletes, they will need to post
performances in the domestic season that will earn
them the invitations to the international meetings,
where they will hope to be hitting the qualifying
standards for World Champs and other top meets. For
them in particular the season will be incredibly long,
leaving the very real prospect that many members of
Team SA could arrive in Doha suffering from physical
and mental fatigue.
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SA’s top track and field athletes are in for a very long season in 2019, with most
already having started their build-up late last year, but here’s what they (and we)
have to look forward to. – BY MANFRED SEIDLER
T
he track and field season in South Africa is
always a long one. Due to the sport being
predominantly a summer one, and South
Africa being in the Southern Hemisphere, it sees
our athletes begin pre-season and early league
events in November, leading up to the serious
events on the local calendar in March (Grand Prix’s,
SA Championships, etc.), and then all the major
international meets take place in the Northern
Hemisphere in their summer months. That traditionally
sees the season end for our athletes at the end of
September, followed by a short break before it all
begins again in November.
However, in 2019 the season will be even longer,
culminating with the World Championships from 28
September to 6 October – and they will take place
in the extreme heat and humidity of Doha in Qatar!
And it isn’t just the long season and the venue of the
World Championships that pose a challenge for South
Africa’s best athletes. A quick look at the key dates on
the local and international calendars shows just what
a challenge lies ahead, not just on the track, but in
related competitions that will have a knock-on effect
on the track season.
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Jam-Packed Calendar
The middle distance runners will get the season
going in January with the SA Cross Country Trials,
while those with indoor ambitions will be heading
north (Europe or the USA) for the indoor season.
In March, the SA season proper starts with four
projected Summer Series Events and the SA Junior
Championships, with the latter being the qualifying
event for the African Junior Championships in April.
Meanwhile, our best middle distance athletes will be
heading to Aarhus in Denmark in March for the World
Cross Country Championships.
April, if all goes according to plan, will see the
three-legged Grand Prix Series and the SA Senior
Championships, before the international season starts
in May with the Diamond League, which runs all the
way through to September. May is also the projected
month for an ASA Elite Event (exactly what that
entails is not yet known) as well as the World Relay
Championships in Yokohama, Japan.
The curtain will then come down on this long season
with the World Champs at the end of September,
followed by the All Africa Games in Morocco, and all
ISSUE 114 JANUARY 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
The aforementioned athletes will be those that South
Africa pins its hopes on for medals at the World
Championships. Then there is Wayde van Niekerk...
Not only South Africa, but the World, is eagerly
awaiting the return to racing of the World and Olympic
Champ and World Record Holder in the 400m. Such is
his world status in the sport that he will be able to pick
which races to run
in SA and in Europe,
which means that
South Africans could
see him compete
less on home
soil as he builds
up to the World
Championships,
where he wants to
be in peak shape
to defend his World
Title.
Meanwhile, Athletics South Africa (ASA) requires
that all athletes who wish to run at the World
Championships must compete in their specialist
events at the SA Championships, and must at least
reach the final of their event at the SA Championships,
even if they qualify for World Champs elsewhere.
There will, of course, be a medical exception made for
Akani Simbine