Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 68, March 2015 | Página 9

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heroes for young
and upcoming athletes
to aspire to emulate?
Personally, I feel it should also
be about participation, gaining
experience, and the reward and honour in
representing your country on the world stage.

We need more

HEROES!
Images: Courtesy Rene Kalmer

The World Champs in athletics take place later this
year, and then the Olympics happen again next year,
but as things stood, very few of our athletes looked
likely to qualify to go, and fortunately that is being
addressed. – BY RENE KALMER

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ecently, Athletics South Africa (ASA) caused quite a stir in local track and field
circles when it released its provisional qualification standards for the 2015 IAAF World
Championships, taking place from 22-30 August in Beijing, China. This sparked an immediate
outcry on social media due to the ASA standards being considerably higher than the IAAF
standards. ASA President Aleck Skhosana quickly assured everybody that these qualifying
standards were provisional and that coaches should contact the ASA Track and Field Commission
if they felt the criteria for qualification is too tough, and that all comments and suggestions would
be taken into consideration before the final standards are released.
The reason given for the tough qualification standards was that ASA only wants to select athletes
that have the potential to win medals at the World Championships, and at next year’s Olympic
Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But is it really just about winning medals? What about creating

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Valuable Experience

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I still remember making my first provincial cross country team at
the age of 10. To be honest, I was just a reserve for the Transvaal (now
Central Gauteng) B-team, and I was a strong B-team contender for the following
two years. At the age of 12 I started dreaming of one day representing South Africa
at the Olympic Games, after watching Elana Meyer win the silver medal in the 10 000m
in Barcelona, behind Derarta Tulu of Ethiopia. After a lot of blood, sweat and even more tears,
that dream became a reality 16 years later when I qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in
the 1500m.

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Thinking back on my career of the past two decades, I’m really grateful for provinces like Central
Gauteng that invested in so many juniors, giving them the opportunity to compete on a national level.
I gained experience at a young age that really helped me in later years. Another great example of
this, at a higher level, is Johan Cronje. He first represented South Africa at the 2004 Olympic Games
in the 1500m, reaching the semi-final, and nine years later he won bronze in the 1500m at the World
Championships in Moscow. It is all about gaining experience and
learning to race championship races. It is not about running the fastest
time, but learning to execute the best tactical race.

Limited Opportunities

Looking at last year’s performances, only 12 of our athletes currently
would have met the proposed ASA A standards for this year’s World
Championships. It is also a great concern that on the women’s side,
only Sunette Viljoen (Javelin) and myself in the marathon would
have met the qualification standards. Another concern is that for the
second year in a row, there is no national athletics series in place to
give athletes the opportunity to compete at top level and chase these
qualifying standards – and only a handful of athletes will have the
opportunity to compete overseas in the hope of qualifying.
Fortunately, ASA subsequently announced that these provisional
qualifying standards have been withdrawn, and I feel that ASA should
stick to the IAAF standards, because they are tough but attainable, and
that will motivate athletes to work hard to reach their dreams. And we
will have our athletic heroes.

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