Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 119, June 2019 | Page 65

TRACK & FIELD
the National Championships were scheduled on the
same weekend as the World Relay Championships
in the first place is another question. So, the 2019
World Relay Championships in Yokohama was the
first time that South Africa fielded a team at the meet,
and it proved a very successful outing, with Team SA
earning 10 points to finish 14th in the final standings.
More importantly, by finishing ninth overall in the heats
of the men’s 4x100m relay, South Africa qualified a
4x100m team to the World Athletics Championships in
October in Doha, Qatar. The 4x400m men’s team also
secured their place in Doha with a sixth place finish,
and they also posted a new African and SA record of
3:05.32. However, the highlight of the meet saw the SA
men’s 4x200m relay team clock 1:20.64 in their first
heat to smash the 17-year-old African and SA Record
(1:22.06) set by an SA team in 2002. More was to
follow, as the team went still faster in the final, clocking
1:20.42 and claiming the silver medal behind the USA
(1:20.12). The team in the final consisted of Simon
Magakwe, Chederick van Wyk, Sinesipho Dambile and
anchor Akani Simbine, with Anaso Jobodwana and Jon
Seeliger also running in the heats.
Inspiring the Next Generation
While many in SA were hoping for, even expecting,
a better showing by our 4x100m men, given their
silver medal performance in the 2018 Commonwealth
Games, their qualification for Doha is still an exciting
turn of events. Keep in mind that it was the first
time South Africa sent a team to the World Relay
Championships, and secondly, the team’s qualification
means that the relays will hopefully inspire other
athletes in the sprints, and will hopefully aid further in
the development of sprinting in SA.
Successful Debut
South Africa has a chequered history with the World
Relay Championships, having not entered in the first
two meets for reasons shrouded in mystery, given
that SA boasted incredible depth in sprinting at that
time. Then in 2017 we entered a team for the first
time, including the likes of Akani Simbine, Wayde van
Niekerk, Anaso Jobodwana and Henricho Bruintjies
on the men’s side, and Caster Semenya and Carina
Horn on the women’s front. It seemed Athletics South
Africa (ASA) was taking the relays seriously, and could
see the obvious potential of one or more relay medals
at the World Championships later that year...
However, ASA also decided to host its National
Championships on the same weekend as the World
Relay Championships, and the South African athletes
were not happy. While ASA expected its sprint stars
to compete at the World Relay Championships,
instead of their own National Championships, the
athletes wanted to run the Nationals in front of their
home crowd. For them it was about giving back to
an athletics community that had been incredibly
supportive, and Akani, Wayde, Caster and others
were adamant that they needed to perform at home at
the Nationals, as this was the last time South African
spectators would see them compete at home in 2017.
On that note, taking youngsters Chederick (24)
and teenager Sinesipho (17) to compete alongside
stalwarts Anaso, Simon and SA 100m Record Holder
Akani is the way to blood the next generation to
World Championship events, and expose them to
the rigours of travel. For Sinesipho, in particular,
the Championships in Yokohama will have been of
immense value. The 17-year-old, who is currently the
fastest in his age group in the World over 200m, would
have rubbed shoulders with the likes of World 100m
Champion Justin Gatlin, 2016 World U20 Champion
Noah Lyles, and Jamaica’s Nesta Carter, to name but
a few. Seeing these athletes up close and competing
against them, with the support and guidance of his
older team mates, will go a long way to building the
youngster’s confidence for the coming years.
Making the Sport ‘Sexier’
Part of the thinking behind the World Relay
Championships is that athletics on the global stage
has realised it needs to reinvent itself if it wants to
remain the second-largest single sport event, in terms
of coverage, behind the FIFA Soccer World Cup. (The
Olympics and the FIFA World Cup are the two biggest
sporting events in terms of coverage, with the World
Cup the biggest involving a single sporting code.)
The IAAF has thus started investigating different ways
in which to take the sport to the public, and also to
attracting more fans, and this saw the inclusion of
exciting mixed relays and mixed shuttle hurdle relays
and at the World Relay Champs. “The IAAF World
Relays was designed to be fun for our athletes and
fans, so it’s the perfect place to try new formats,”
says IAAF President Sebastian Coe. “I’ve been
championing innovation in our sport since I took the
reins, so it’s great to see the addition of a dynamic
relay that will showcase our sprint hurdlers.”
The addition of a mixed 2x2x400m relay and mixed
shuttle hurdles relay meant there were three men’s,
three women’s and three mixed events (two men, two
women) at the two-day meeting. The shuttle hurdle
relays saw men running 110m hurdles in one direction,
and handing over to women who then did 100m
hurdles in the opposite direction. The mixed relays
(2x2x400m) added an interesting element to the races,
with teams needing to decide which legs would be
run by men or women. The dynamics of this certainly
made for interesting racing.
Sadly, the stands in Yokohama were not filled to
capacity, as they were for the first three World Relay
Championships staged in the Bahamas. Does that
mean that the IAAF’s plan of reinventing the sport has
failed? First the question must be asked, how well was
the meet marketed in Yokohama, and did the marketing
campaign target the Japanese public? It is unusual
for the Japanese public to not come out and attend
events, and they are fiercely patriotic in that regard.
Given that this is all fairly new, one could argue that the
concept and new events need time to gain momentum.
One thing is clear, though: For South Africa, the World
Relay Championships are of vast importance to
provide new blood in the sport with opportunities, to
help hone the different relay teams’ handover skills,
and to add to the medal tally that South Africa could
potentially bring home from a World Championships.
ASA was adamant that the athletes would be going
to the Bahamas, but when the athletes started the
#FillupPotch campaign on social media, ASA bowed
to the inevitable. After all, what would a National
Championships be without our star athletes? But why
65