Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 50, September 2013 | Page 4

Editor’s Letter

On My Mind

I

n the months leading up to the IAAF Athletics World Champs in Moscow in August, very little focus was placed on the athletes thanks to the drawn out in-?ghting in the sport, ?rst amongst the board members of Athletics South Africa (ASA), and then between ASA and the national Olympic body, SASCOC. This saw SASCOC suspend ASA in July, and thus all qualifying athletes would not be included, until further notice, in team selections for ‘World Games,’ including the Olympics and Commonwealth Games. It also affected the World Student Games team, which was about to leave for Kazan, Russia – and that team included a certain Anaso Jobodwana, who had reached the Olympic 200m ?nal last year in London. Thankfully for the student athletes, the USSA sport federation then withdrew its membership of SASCOC and thus the athletes could go – and Anaso went on to claim a brilliant sprint gold double as he won both the 100m and 200m ?nals in Kazan. Fast-forward to August and Anaso took that form and con?dence to Moscow and reached another 200m ?nal, giving Usain Bolt a run for his money in the qualifying heats en route to the ?nal. At just 21, Anaso is one of several young athletes coming through the ranks in SA athletics and establishing themselves on the world stage, which bodes well for this country’s medal prospects in the future. Which brings me to one of my personal pet hates… listening to people referring to our athletes as failures because they did not medal at the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, World Champs or every other top level meet. Just qualifying for these meets puts an athlete amongst the best in the world; reaching the ?nal of their chosen event usually then puts them in the top eight of that event, and that remains a major achievement – even if they ?nish last in that ?nal! That’s number eight in the world… out of seven billion!

Editor’s perks: Hanging out with Ren e Kalmer & Irvette van Zyl at the Totalsports Ladies Race in Stellenb osch. (Race Report page 34)

So I would love to see everybody being more supportive of our athletes, and we start this month with coverage of the Moscow World Champs as well as the two recent Trail Running World Champs. These were proudly South African athletes ?ying the green and gold, and it is our privilege to have them in our mag. Speaking of trail running, I want to highlight our involvement in the various Spur Trail Series runs around the country, as an of?cial media partner of these terri?c events. I did two of them this past month down in the Cape and hope to run a few in Gauteng soon, if my schedule and travel plans permit, because they really are great fun. Hope to see you there! Folks, one of the aspects of this mag that I love the most is that the content is all locally produced, is about local runners, races, clubs and issues, and is packaged here to inspire you to run and motivate you to keep at it, investing in your health. Also, we have a number of sections where we publish reader content, like Letters, My Story and Athletes in Action. So the invite is open: Send us your contributions, big or small, and we’ll do our best to publish it here in the mag.

Lace ‘em up!

Sean Falconer

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Half Century up, but Time for Change
milestone with you, and hope you have enjoyed the journey with us. We have come a long way since our ?rst edition and brought you many inspiring stories about everyday modern athletes that we can all relate to and share our passion with. The manner in which you have embraced our publication has been incredible – thank you for making Modern Athlete one of your favourite publications, and one of SA’s biggest sport publications. This special edition also marks a change in guard at Modern Athlete as we say a sad goodbye to our long-time editor, Michelle Carnegie. Rewind 49 editions, when I placed an advert in our inaugural publication for a journalist and got a call from Michelle, who had picked up a Modern Athlete at the Comrades expo. It has been fantastic to witness Michelle’s career grow from an accomplished journalist to an even better editor, and ultimately an author, in a sport for which she has so much passion. She interviewed some incredible people, produced magni?cent

It’s hard to believe this is issue #50. I’m so glad to be able to share this

content, participated in world class events, won journalism awards and ensured you got a great read every month. Michelle will be having her second baby in the near future and as she goes forward in the next stages of life and motherhood, I am sure she will be as proud of her accomplishments at Modern Athlete as we are, and that she will continue to be a regular contributor to the publication. Michelle, I am really glad you picked up that ?rst edition of Modern Athlete, and on behalf of the whole team and all our readers, I would like to thank you for your incredible contribution in establishing Modern Athlete as the SA runner’s publication of choice, and wish you everything of the best for the future. We are happy to announce our longest serving member of the team and a regular personality on the running circuit, as an event announcer, Sean Falconer, as the new editor of Modern Athlete. It is awesome to see Sean land this wonderful and well-deserved opportunity. Craig and I, along with all our readers, look forward to sharing the next 50 editions with you.

Mike Bray

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ISSUE 50 SEPTEMBER 2013 / www.modernathlete.co.za