Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 121, August 2019 | Page 24

SPORT MAN
Says
By
Manfred Seidler
Finding the New Talent
So who is responsible for the development of young running talent, and even before the development takes place, where
will this new talent come from, and who will actually go and find it? That’s the million-dollar question...
D
doing athletics now. Elna found me,
convinced me to take up jumping and
coached me for many years before I
moved to Potch, and later Pretoria.
Without her efforts, I would never
have made it,” he says.
But why not the athletic provinces or
clubs? Surely they too have a role to
play. But you need to keep in mind
that currently around 90% of athletics
clubs in South Africa are road running clubs, whose
sole interest is to put on at least one road race in the
calendar year. And more often than not, that race
does not properly cater for the pinnacle top end of the
running community, the world class elite athletes, but
that is a debate for another day.
And what about the national government’s Department
of Sport, Arts and Culture, and the provincial-level
governmental sports bodies? Or the schools and
universities? Then there are all the coaches out there,
and let’s not forget those individuals with a passion
for the sport that can unearth new talent through their
involvement... The point is, there are many people and
organisations that can contribute to talent identification
and development, but the big question remains, who is
actually taking responsibility to do it.
Uncovering Rough Diamonds
In years gone by, you would often find that school
teachers with a passion for the sport would offer up
their free time and become the catalyst for finding
and nurturing talent in the early stages of the young
athletes’ careers. Take 2008 Olympic and 2009 World
Championship long jump silver medallist, Khotso
‘Croc’ Mokoena, as an example. He was discovered
by teacher Elna De Beer, who would fetch Khotso for
training and then spend hours of her own time and
money to help him develop from a tall, gangly kid with
loads of talent, to become the best long jumper and
triple jumper South Africa had seen for many years.
To his credit, Khotso is quick to give Elna credit for
his success. “If Elna had not found me all those years
ago in Heidelberg, guess what, I would not have been
Luke Davids went on to win the Youth Olympics 100m gold
medal in 2018
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ISSUE 121 AUGUST 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za
Competitive
racing in the
girls’ middle-
distance
events
Elna never saw a cent for all her
effort... and so the story goes for
many coaches and mentors. A
similar story saw SA 800m record
holder Hezekiel Sepeng discovered
by JP Van der Merwe when he was
running for a school in the townships
of Potchefstroom. JP convinced
Potchefstroom Boys High School to
provide Hezekiel with a bursary, and
the rest, as they say, is history. Hezekiel went on to
win a silver medal in the 800m at the 1996 Olympics,
1999 World Champs and both the 1994 and 1998
Commonwealth Games, and today he is the ASA High
Performance Manager.
Meanwhile, the late Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, who won
the World 800m title in 2009 to go with his two World
Indoor titles, came from the small village of Muduluni in
Limpopo, where he was originally a soccer player. He
was discovered there by Makonde Makhumisani, who
convinced the young Mbuli, as he was affectionately
known, to give up the round ball and start to run track
instead. Actually, ‘track’ is a bit of a stretch, because
in those early years of Mbuli’s career, the group trained
on a gravel ‘field’ where Makonde would draw lanes
for athletes to run in, and a circle for kids to throw a
evelopment... Talent
identification... What exactly
does that mean, and who is
responsible for the next generation
of athletes that will take over from
the current generation, and hopefully
take the sport to the next level? The
most commonly offered answer to
these questions is usually that it is the
responsibility of Athletics South Africa
(ASA), the national federation and
mother body of the sport.