SA ’ s growing strength in relay events may make selections for global meets a bit tricky
TRACK & FIELD
Track & Field Calendar 2022
The 2022 calendar is very much provisional , as the dates for SA championships are still subject to confirmation , and all dates may change if the COVID pandemic continues to wreak havoc around the globe , but for now this is the schedule that our athletes are trying to plan around .
11-12 Mar SA Provincial Championships ( Various )
18-20 Mar World Indoor Champsionships ( Belgrade , Serbia )
30 Mar-2 Apr SA U16 , U18 & U20 Championships ( Potchefstroom )
Images : Roger Sedres / Image SA
Selection Conundrum
Back in 2019 it all seemed so logical . The Olympics would take place in 2020 , the continental and World Athletics Champs would follow in 2021 , and then the Commonwealth Games and World Under-20 Champs would go down in 2022 . But then COVID arrived , and all those plans went out the window . Now our South African athletics selectors have some difficult decisions to make .
– BY SEAN FALCONER
In normal times , the Olympic Games take place every four years , as do the Commonwealth Games , with two years between them and always on even years . We should therefore have seen the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 , The Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022 , and the Paris Olympics in 2024 . In between that , continental and World Championship meets happen every two years , always taking place on uneven years , so we should have seen the 2021 World Champs in Eugene in the USA , and then the 2023 World Champs in Budapest in Hungary .
However , due to the COVID pandemic that swept the world in early 2020 , the Tokyo Olympics were postponed to 2021 . In turn , this meant that the 2021 World Champs moved to 2022 , as did the continental champs meets , including the African Champs , but the Commonwealth Games and World Under-20 Champs originally scheduled for 2022 did not move . Now all four meets are scheduled to take place in 2022 , and all in the space of just eight weeks , with two of these meets even being in the same week !
That will obviously be a huge challenge for the world ’ s top athletes , who now face a heavily congested competition schedule , and that ’ s just the main international meets … they will also be hoping to compete at the 14 World Athletics Diamond League meets from 13 May to 8 September , as these meets offer a lucrative payday for athletes that crack an invite . Also , our top South African athletes will need to factor in the provincial and national champs in SA , as they will need to well in these meets in order to be selected for a national team to one or more of the global meets . So , as you can imagine , this hectic schedule ( see table below ) is posing quite a few challenges for our athletes , coaches , administrators and selectors .
Time for Tough Choices
There have been suggestions that Athletics South Africa should simply send our first-choice athletes to the World Champs ( 15-24 July ) and the secondchoice athletes to the Commonwealth Games , which start just one week later ( 2-8 August ). With the African Champs ( 8-12 June ) taking place a month before the World Champs , it then makes sense for both sets of athletes to use the continental meet as a stepping stone to and final tune-up for the global meets .
However , some athletes want to compete at all three meets , in order to defend their titles or chase more titles and medals . This includes sprinters Akani Simbine and Wayde van Niekerk , as well shot put star Kyle Blignaut . Ostensibly , that sounds great for Team SA ’ s chances of winning medals at all three meets , but besides the consideration of athletes not being able to peak at two major global meets just a week apart , not to mention possible travel and quarantine restrictions , there is also the question of selection spots available .
Reports are that the Commonwealth Games Association has awarded South Africa a total of 92 slots across all sports for Birmingham , which will likely limit the slots available to athletics to around 20 . Given SA ’ s increasing focus on relays as a potential source of medals , if we send three relay teams to Birmingham , that already accounts for at least 12 of the selection slots , if not 15 ( four per team plus a reserve ). Many of the relay sprinters will also compete individually , but it is still a big choice for the selectors , as it would leave only five to eight slots for other athletes .
Furthermore , if we want to send a men ’ s marathon team to Birmingham , that would account for another three to four slots , and it cannot be the same marathoners who go to the World Champs a week earlier . And then there is also the small consideration that the World U20 Champs are the same week as the Commonwealth Games , so do the younger athletes skip the World Champs and Commonwealth Games to go to Columbia instead – and how would that affect the relay teams at the other two meets ?
While the packed calendar is going to provide fans of athletics with plenty of great viewing this year , spare a thought for the athletes and selectors , who have a lot of tough decisions to make in coming months .
21-23 Apr SA Senior Championships ( Cape Town )
29-30 Apr SA Relay & Multi Events Championships ( Mbombela )
5-7 May USSA Championships ( Cape Town )
27-28 May SA Trials ( Durban )
6-10 Jun 10th All Africa University Games ( Nairobi , Kenya )
8-12 Jun CAA Africa Championships ( Mauritius )
15-24 Jul World Athletics Championships ( Eugene , USA )
2-7 Aug World U20 Championships ( Cali , Columbia )
2-8 Aug Commonwealth Games ( Birmingham , UK )
Akani Simbine would like to defend his African and Commonwealth titles in 2022 , and still go to the World Champs
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