Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 130, May 2020 | Page 48

TRACK & FIELD Forget 2020, Focus on 2021 South Africa’s athletes are being advised to forget about competing this year, and instead start preparing for the 2021 season, given that the COVID-19 pandemic looks set to force the cancellation of all sport till at least late this year. We caught up with some of the country’s top coaches and sprinters at the University of Pretoria (Tuks) to see how they’re doing in lockdown. – BY WILHELM DE SWARDT & SEAN FALCONER With the COVID-19 rate of infection in Europe seemingly starting to slowly decrease, there is much talk about re-opening economies and getting back to normal life as soon as safe to do so. This conversation has included sport, with meetings being held by all the sporting disciplines and codes to determine whether to allow sport to start up again. In Germany, for example, top flight football has started up again, although matches are being played in empty stadiums, and many other codes are looking at similar options, but the jury is still out on whether any of the major meets will happen in athletics in 2020. “As things stand, it is not sure whether World Athletics will allow any of the major meetings to happen. I would be surprised if they do,” says University of Pretoria (Tuks) Athletics Manager Danie Cornelius. As he points out, eight of the Danie Cornelius with Akani Simbine 15 Diamond League Meetings have been suspended, and World Athletics has announced that no athlete will be able to qualify for the postponed 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games between April 6 and November 30 this year. Danie therefore considers that as an indication that World Athletics might be thinking to postpone all events for this year. “It would make sense to do so. Why would athletes want to compete if they can’t qualify for the Olympics? Some might argue there is money to be made, but I don’t think that is enough of an incentive for top athletes to compete,” he says. “Due to the pandemic, the whole world has basically been in lockdown, and the reality is that most athletes have not been able to train on a track for weeks. Even though most continued training at home, it is no guarantee that they are race fit.” Expected Delays According to Danie, even if there are going to be international athletics meetings in Europe or the USA, the chances of any South African athletes competing remains slim. “There are no indications as to when athletes in South Africa will be allowed to start training again. I expect it might only be in August. If so, it will be too late to get in shape to compete internationally,” he says. “Any athlete will tell you the only way to become competitive is to race. If given the ‘green light’ tomorrow, it still will take five to six weeks before athletes will consider themselves ready to compete. My question to athletes is, do you want to risk all to maybe compete in two or three meetings this year? Also, a major problem facing South Africa’s top athletes is they hardly ever get to do proper pre-season training. Their season usually ends in September, and by March during the provincial championships, they start to compete again. There is no better time than now for athletes to focus on what they are forever finding excuses not to do.” Images: Reg Caldecott 48 ISSUE 130 MAY 2020 / www.modernathlete.co.za