Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 129, April 2020 | Page 6

Have Your SAY Got something on your mind that you want to share, a burning question you want answered, or a good story to tell? Then send it to [email protected], and add a pic if you can. Letters should preferably be no more than 300 words long, and pics must be high-resolution to be usable in print. (Note that letters may be shortened due to space limitations.) EDITOR’S PICK HELP ATHLETES DURING LOCKDOWN Hi Modern Athlete, don’t you guys feel it’s time to ask the SA government to rethink its attitude to jogging during the lockdown? Compare the concessions allowed in three countries where jogging is popular and where there have been many more COVID-19 cases than here: • UK: One outing a day allowed for exercise purposes. • France: Jogging allowed for an hour a day within one kilometre of your residence. • Australia: Exercise listed with buying food, seeking medical attention and performing essential services as acceptable reasons for leaving your home. Exercise has obvious health benefits, and depriving people of the chance to jog outdoors could even lower their immunity, thereby putting them at higher risk of contracting Covid19 or other ailments as we approach flu season. Against that, in terms of the whole objective of the lockdown, you could argue that jogging might promote group gatherings and increase the chances of spreading the virus, but the answer to that is that joggers are intelligent enough to know they have to go out alone and to keep a social distance from anybody they happen to see on the streets. This condition is part of the rules for allowing jogging in the UK, France and Australia, and could be here, too. Thanks for your thought-provoking letter, Nick. Trust me when I say that we have debated this, and we believe we must support the government’s decision not to allow running, as we support the principles of the lockdown fully, and believe that everybody must make some sacrifices during this time to flatten the curve. Absolutely, logic dictates that running could potentially be done if everybody stuck to strict rules. Sadly, however, I don’t think all runners would do so, and news getting out of runners abusing this privilege would cause an uproar. What goes for the whole country must also go for runners… and since all people are enduring hardship, frustration and boredom, we don’t think that runners should get special treatment or concessions that others cannot enjoy. Most importantly, you speak of countries with much higher rates of infection still allowing running. Therein lies your answer… we are currently still seeing far less infections in this country precisely because we have such a strict lockdown. We may not agree with all the specific restrictions or rules, but the strict lockdown appears to be working. – Ed. MA could run a petition to government to allow jogging under the restrictions suggested, encouraging all your readers to sign it. You could also approach ASA, provincial athletic federations and indeed every one of the hundreds of running clubs around the country to support the petition. This would lend the petition the weight of numbers and influence. We know the government was close to allowing short jogs. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize even appeared to give the go-ahead before his cabinet colleagues decided to reconsider and overrule him. In view of the extension of the lockdown, I was hoping to see some relaxation of various restrictions, including the one on jogging, but no such luck. MA, you are uniquely placed in the country to take this kind of action, far more than any individual. For the sake of the thousands of South African runners, I plead with you to act on my suggestion. – Nick Cowley, via e-mail I recently saw photographer Roger Sedres taking us on a trip down memory lane on Facebook, sharing some of his many images through the years. It reminded me of the day he took this pic of me, sometime back in 1993, when I first met him at a very misty evening meeting at the old Greenpoint Stadium. If my memory serves, this was my fastest ever win over the 800m (note, not my PB), and I was pretty chuffed. Roger must have seen my enthusiasm, and he approached me after the run and invited me over to Argus House, close to where I work. During the next week, I went to pay him a visit and he took me into the darkroom – this was still the good old days of film – and went through the process of developing/printing a black and white photo. To my amazement, it was a photo of me leading the race towards the finish line. He gave me the almost A4 size print once it was set and dried (quite a process), and it remains one of my favourite running photos. I am not sure why he singled me out back then, but I sure appreciated it. Thanks for the awesome memories, Roger, and I feel privileged to have been an early subject when you were cutting your teeth in this profession. – Brian John Records, via Facebook 6 ISSUE 129 APRIL 2020 / www.modernathlete.co.za Roger is a regular contributor to this mag, and I too am in awe of his phenomenal skill in capturing the power, grace and excitement of running in his images. – Ed. TRIBUTE TO A MAN OF THE TRACK