Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 126, January 2020 | Page 24

SPORT MAN
Says
By
Manfred Seidler
More than Just an Olympic Year
This is an Olympic year, so athletics lovers will naturally focus on the nine days between 31 July and 8 August as the
highlight of the 2020 athletics season, but there is so much else to look forward to this year... especially since the chances
of this being a good Olympics for our South African athletes is looking rather bleak.
his fifth place in the marathon at the 2019 World
Championships in Doha, Qatar, he would be a
possibility for a medal... but only a possibility. The
marathon favourite has to be Eliud Kipchoge of
Kenya, the 2016 champion from Rio and current World
Record holder. On the women’s marathon front, Two
Oceans and Comrades champ Gerda Steyn looks set
to have an incredible experience if she is selected – I
cannot see that not happening, as I explained in my
article about her in the December edition – but can
we look to her realistically for a medal? It would be
grossly unfair to expect that, in spite of her fighting
spirit and the fact that the Olympic Marathon is
seldom a fast race. The depth of competition is
something she will not have experienced at this level.
More Medal Hopefuls
Olympic Stadium, Tokyo
R
ealistically, South Africa has two, at best three,
medal prospects in athletics at the 2020 Tokyo
Olympics in Japan – and these are not medals
you would bet your house on, these are prospects.
We simply do not know if reigning Olympic 400m
men’s champion Wayde van Niekerk will be back this
year, never mind at the Olympics, and even if he does
make it to Tokyo, what sort of shape he will be in.
So we cannot include him in our preview. The same
applies to reigning Olympic 800m women’s champ
Caster Semenya, due to her ongoing battle with
World Athletics (formerly the IAAF). As things stand,
she will not be competing, as the international body
has implemented a rule that effectively keeps her out
of competing in her favourite events, the 800m and
1500m. Had she been in the 800m, then you could
have banked on that medal. Alas...
Furthermore, Stephen Mokoka may not be available
for the marathon (see his story on page 10). After
Other prospects are long-jumpers Luvo Manyonga
and Ruswahl Samaai. In 2016 they finished second
and ninth respectively in Rio, then claimed the gold
and bronze medals at the 2017 World Champs in
London, but both will need to produce a much better
performance than at the 2019 World Championships,
where they finished fourth and fifth respectively.
That leaves Akani Simbine and the 4x100m relay
squad. The 100m sprint is arguably the hardest track
event on the programme, and Usain Bolt in his prime
Luvo Manyonga
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ISSUE 126 JANUARY 2020 / www.modernathlete.co.za
Akani Simbine