Monday 29/06/2009
Back from last weeks illness ... but it's still brrrr cold!
I always struggled to understand why athletics is not "recognised" as a sport in this country until I took up coaching this month. I was forced to choose 2 of 5 sport electives namely soccer, rugby, cricket, netball and hockey. Already we are taught to go "where the money is".
It's no wonder WPA's athletic structure is in shambles wherein many accredited coaches are working as administrators and not as coaches because the demand for athletic coaches is too small. You have to be the "best" in the business before clubs like Nedbank, Adidas, Mr Price, etc will make you an offer. Now you wonder why SA did so bad at the Olympics! This country is ultra obsessed and doesn't follow the strategies implemented overseas. Most athletes here train while holding down a job and those that do take the small contracts offered, burn out or remain one of the top national runners.
Our athletes immigrate or train overseas because their support system is better. They have athletic programs and training camps that train specifically over 4 years for the Olympics and not within the last 6 months as what happens here.
This year the National Lottery gave a
400 million rand grant for SA's 2012 Olympic challange!
Hosting the big sporting eventsThe Rugby World Cup, Cricket World Cup, World Cup of Motorsport, Women's World Cup of Golf, African Nations Cup ... If you think South Africa will have any trouble pulling off the 2010 Fifa World Cup, look at the country's track record for hosting major sporting events - and think again.
International events
1995 Rugby World Cup1996 African Cup of Nations1996 World Cup of Golf1998 World Cup of Athletics2003 Cricket World Cup2003 President's Cup2003-2008 Fina Swimming World Cup2005-2008 Women's World Cup of Golf2006-2008 A1 Grand Prix Durban2006 Paralympic Swimming World Champs2007 World Twenty20 Championships2010 Fifa World Cup preliminary drawRed Bull Big Wave AfricaSix-star rated surfing eventsHomegrown internationals
Nedbank Golf ChallengeCape Argus Pick 'n Pay Cycle TourGiro del CapoCape EpicComrades MarathonTwo Oceans MarathonDusi Canoe MarathonSurf Ski World CupStumbled upon this rather lengthy
Tribute to Arthur LydiardAs an ardent Lydiard disciple myself, and having modelled my approach to coaching on the man who the American Runner’s World styled “All Time best Running Coach”, I believe that the incident that demonstrated the essence of the man more than any other, occurred in Finland in 1967. Much like South Africa distance runners of today, Lydiard found that despite the proud tradition of Finnish distance running, Finnish athletes had “gone soft, lost their toughness”. Always a coach to lead by example, on his second day in Finland on assignment to revitalise Finnish athletics, Lydiard accompanied the Finnish National Squad on a 30 km training run. Although nearly 50 at the time Lydiard beat all the Finnish squad but one.
Lydiard could not have demonstrated the sorry state of Finnish distance running more eloquently. Nevertheless, his influence on the Finnish coaches was directly responsible for the re-emergence of Finland as a major force in distance running in the 1970’s, with Olympic immortal, Lasse Viren, the flag bearer of the Finnish revival, with his unprecedented 4 Olympic golds in the 5000 metres and 10 000 metres. Lydiard’s coaching principles also produced another generation of world class New Zealand distance runners in the late 1970’s, including world mile and 1500 metre world record holder, John Walker, and world 5000 metres record holder, Dick Quax.
The Finnish precedent has important lessons for South Africa. Like Finland we have an impressive distance running tradition which has fallen into decline. Lydiard came to South Africa with Peter Snell in 1964 and returned in 1979, sponsored by South African Breweries. It is not possible to gauge how much the golden age of South Africa distance running in the 1980’s is attributable to Lydiard’s influence. Not all the great runners of the 1980’s followed Lydiard’s schedules. It is nevertheless significant, as Gilmour’s biography points out, that Zola Budd, certainly the most celebrated athlete of the era, dramatically emerged as a world force, trained on Lydiard principles by her coach, Pieter Labushagne.
Long before Budd’s fateful clash with Mary Decker at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the two were being compared. In a Sports Illustrated article which appeared shortly after Budd’s meteoric rise, Zola’s exposure to Lydiard’s endurance-based system was contrasted with the demanding speed training imposed on Decker in her youth. Referring to Budd’s long Lydiard-style training runs, the article stated:-
“In this she was wonderfully fortunate. Decker, by contrast, has thrown at an early age into hard interval and speed training, voluminous racing. That resulted in promising marks followed by a host of injuries.”
From a South African perspective the destructive training techniques to which Decker was exposed as a precocious junior are still all too prevalent in this country. Excessive pressure on school children and the widespread use of interval and speed training gives South Africa athletics the unenviable distinction of having the highest junior burnout rate in the world. Budd was lucky to have a wise, well-read and well informed coach, who Gilmour records attended one of Lydiard’s seminars in South Africa in 1979.
Using an extremely pure version of Lydiard training I have coached athletes to an array of successes including a place on the South African 2000 Olympic marathon team, three South African senior distance running titles and four silver medals at various South African Championships and no less than 15 provincial athletes.
If it can work for me and scores of other Lydiard-inspired coaches it can work for you.
In twenty first century South Africa, the value of the Lydiard system is demonstrated no where as dramatically as the Wits Sports Academy training group in Diepkloof, Soweto. Their coach, Lungile Bikwani, is a devoted Lydiard follower and like the master, runs with his athletes. He has coached no less than seven South African representatives, including the most exciting junior in the history of South African distance running, Tshamano Setone, the Phalula twins (the first black women to win senior SA 800 metres and 1500 metres titles) and SA junior women’s 800 metres and 4km Cross Country Champion, Violet Raseboya, Abram Khumalo, Thuso Phaswana and Xolisa Tyali.
A telling incident occurred when Bikwani’s junior women athletes took 1, 2, 3 and his junior male athletes took 1, 3 in a development race in Port Elizabeth in 2004. A local official complained to Bikwani that they were depriving the local athletes of medals and prize money. Bikwani responded in a brusque manner reminiscent of the New Zealand master: “Your coaches obviously haven’t heard of Arthur Lydiard”. Predictably the Eastern Province contingent had not, and it showed in the poor results of their athletes.
With the appearance of Arthur Lydiard-Master Coach, now available on the Internet, the current generation of coaches, teachers and physical education instructors have no excuse of being ignorant of Lydiard’s training legacy. As Lydiard said in the biography, “There are champions everywhere - they just need to be properly coached”. Working with champion athletes is the reward that awaits those like Bikwani, who venture along the path Lydiard has so boldly and generously illuminated.
Two more 1 500m stars shine
The explosion in South African 1500m running continued at the Mondo Keien Athletics meeting in Uden, Netherlands, on Saturday when two more men clocked times below 3 min 40 sec for the first time.
Elroy Gelant (22) and Mthombisi Baloyi (24), both from Potchefstroom, took the first two places with respective times of 3 min 38.59 sec and 3 min 39.81 sec and brought the tally of South Africans below 3:40 to nine this year alone -- more than any time in one year.
Gelant, who is in very good shape and just hoping for a fast race, had a previous best time of 3:40.80 while Baloyi's former fastest stood at 3 min 40.06 sec.
A large contingent of South Africans competed at the meeting and did reasonably well.
Another middle distance runner, Molefe Molefe, finished eighth in 3 min 44.13 sec while Edwin Molepo won the 3 000m steeplechase.
Tuesday 30/06/2009
Profile of WPA licenced membersA very disturbing trend is the distribution of ages. In order to place the age distribution in context, the IAAF’s focus is on the following age categories (these are the ages for which World Athletics Championships are held): Youth (or u18, ages 16 & 17), Junior (or u20, ages 18 & 19) and senior (over the age of 16, but generally to the late thirties). World Masters Athletics (and South African Masters Athletics) caters for ages 35 and up.
The following appears from the WPA licence statistics:
Sub Youth -(220 (3%)
Youth – 142 (2%)
Junior – 151 (2%)
20-24 – 349 (2%)
25-29 – 417 (6%)
30-34 – 661 (10%)35-39 – 934 (14%)
40-44 – 1001 (15%)
45-49 – 1037 (16%)
50-54 – 697 (11%)
55-59 – 466 (7%)
60+ - 438 (7%)
(Info not supplied – 14).
For the IAAF focus ages (16-35) there are only 1720 (26%) licenced athletes. For the WMA focus ages there are 4573 (70%) athletes.
Wednesday 01/07/2009
Five things we've learned from the Confederations Cup
1. South Africa is cold in June
2. Spain are beatable
3. Don't moan about the vuvuzelas
"Those African trumpets?" Xabi Alonso said with a look of genuine disgust. "They make a terrible noise. I don't think it's a very good idea to have them on sale outside the grounds. Here's a piece of advice for Fifa: they should try to ban those things. It's not distracting but that noise is a bit annoying."
It seems like an innocent enough comment. Why, after all, shouldn't Alonso complain if something irks him? But it prompted fury among South African fans and was, it seems, part of the reason why the home crowd got behind the US in their semi-final victory over Spain. "South Africa is a noisy country," blasted a leader in the Daily Sun. "Foreigners should get used to it." A letter in the same paper, meanwhile, accused Alonso of being a modern-day conquistador.
You may know that the idea they're connected to the myth that baboons are killed by loud noise is farcical. You may know that they've only really been around for four or five years. You may despair of people who tell you that they're part of African football (they're not: I've been to three African Cups of Nations and heard the drumming of the Beninois and the Ivorians, the trumpets and trombones of the Nigerians, even the banjo-playing of Ali, the grinning and omnipresent Tunisian, but I'd never heard a vuvuzela until a fortnight ago). You may be driven slowly insane by them. But it's probably best not to mention it.
4. Brazil are better than we thought
5. People are staggeringly friendly, but security is still a concern
Thursday 02/07/2009
Big incentives for SA runners
South Africa's top road runners will have an added incentive to break the stranglehold foreign runners have on major South African competitions when they compete in the Nedbank SA Half Marathon Championships in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.
Apart from the prize money at stake, Athletics South Africa has announced lucrative incentives totalling R480 000 that will be available for South African men and women runners.
This is over and above the customary position prize money which is payable to all runners irrespective of their nationality.
The Championships also serve as trials to select a provisional team to represent South Africa at the IAAF World Half Marathon in Birmingham on October 11.
A new South African record for men or women will be rewarded with an extra R150 000, while men running a sub 61:00 time will net the first runner R75 000 the second R50 000 and the third R30 000.For women runners to earn these incentives a sub 68:00 time will be required.
A sub 61:30 time for men will earn the first three runners R25 000, R15 000 and R 10 000 while a sub 62:00 will earn the first three runners R8 000, R6 000 and R4 000 respectively. Women will have to record times of sub 70 minutes and sub 72 minutes respectively to qualify for these incentives. For top placed junior runners under 62:00 (women under 76:00) R10 000 is available, men under 62:30 (women under 78:00) R7000 and men under 63:00 (women under 80:00) R5000."ASA is geared towards motivating its athletes to be top performers. We believe our athletes possess the talent to be amongst the best in the world.
"It is therefore our hope these incentives will help in breaking the monotony of foreign athletes dominating local races," said ASA president, Leonard Chuene.Kenyan Coach preparing SA marathon runners for World ChampionshipsAthletics South Africa is leaving nothing to chance in the preparation of the marathon athletes who will represent the country at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin in August.
The squad has for some time been training at altitude under the guidance of experienced Kenyan coach Danson Muchoki and according to reports from the athletes this initiative by ASA has been a great improvement from past preparations.
ASA has secured the services of Mr. Muchoki as part of its long term strategy to improve the standard of middle and long distance running in the country and to unearth new talent. He had a brief spell preparing the SA team for the World Cross Country Championships in Amman earlier this year and has since focused his attention to the preparation of the marathon squad.
The squad members will be competing at the Nedbank SA Half Marathon Championships in Port Elizabeth this weekend as part of their build up to the World Championships.
South Africa’s leading women marathon athlete, Tanith Maxwell, said, “It's been a brilliant opportunity to make use of the international acclaimed training set up at Potchefstroom's High Performance Institute (HPI). The initiative by ASA has put marathon training and marathon running on a new level with exciting prospects for South Africa .”
“In saying that, I must admit that it is challenging being the only female representative. The men have developed into a very strong and positive team and they have been brilliant in their support towards me”.
“I hope that this initiative by ASA would encourage other SA women marathon runners to represent South Africa and hopefully we will be able to field a SA women’s team in the future.”
Meanwhile Coolboy Ngamole who took a three months leave from work and who recently came up tops in the Southern Region half-marathon championships in Comores in April said, “So far so good no problem everything is perfect. Environment, training, facilities and food are perfect. I am aiming for a 62 minutes in Port Elizabeth . If it's my day, I'll win.”
Johannes Kekana had this to say: “The training is good. So far no complaints. The World Championships is the main focus. Anything under 64:30 at the SA Half Marathon Championships will be fine, anything better is a bonus.”
Poppy Mlambo who has been roped in to partner with Maxwell in her preparations also had this to said: “The group is supportive and the spirit is high, I just wish I was part of this team to the world champs. The way the training is going, I can see myself running under 75 minutes in Port Elizabeth . I am aiming for the podium.”
South African long distance runner Norman Dlomo said: “The Kenyan coach knows what he's doing and he knows how to take us where he wants us to go. It is just unfortunate that I am not going to the SA Half Marathon Championships. I was expecting a good performance there but I have a knee injury.”
Chris GFriday 03/07/2009
Dibaba pulls out of Oslo Golden League meet
Ethiopia's triple Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba will miss Friday's Golden League meeting in Oslo after suffering a minor injury, her manager Mark Wetmore has announced.
Dibaba's absence is a blow for Bislett Games organisers who were billing this second Golden League meet as a showdown between Dibaba and her compatriot Meseret Defar for the world 5 000 metres record.
"She (Dibaba) picked up a minor injury in training on Tuesday which I was only made aware of yesterday (Wednesday)," Wetmore reported.
"I don't think it's serious and Tirunesh will certainly compete in the 10,000m at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin (next month)," he said adding that the middle distance star would race somewhere later this month "but we don't know where yet".
The past two seasons have seen hotly-contested battles between bitter rivals Dibuaba and Defar in Oslo.
Two years ago it was 25-year-old Defar who set a blistering pace in cool conditions, slicing eight seconds off her previous best to set a new world record in 14min 16.63sec.
Last year it was the turn of 24-year-old Dibaba, who pushed the record even further (14min 11.15sec) under a warmer 24 degrees celcius.
Despite Dibaba stealing the show at the Beijing Games, winning both the 5 000m and 10 000m, with Defar claiming just a bronze over 5 000m, it is the latter who leads 12 to 11 in their head to heads.
Warm forecasts for the Norwegian capital on Friday evening could however favour the Olympic champion as well as countryman Kenenisa Bekele, also a double titleholder over the same distances at last year's Olympics.
Bekele's thoughts, however, will not be on his world 5 000m record (12:37.35), but a simple victory to put him closer to the one million dollar jackpot awarded to the winner of all six legs of the Golden League series.
If he succeeds, Bekele could share the prize with Russian polevaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, who has a margin on her rivals, and American Sanya Richards, who has dominated on the track at the start of this season.
The middle distance looks set for a battle with Sudanese 800m specialist Abubaker Kaki and Kenyan Augustine Choge lining up for the Dream Mile (1609 m).
Kaki holds the two fastest times over the distance, while Choge won the 1,500m in the opening event in the Golden League series in Berlin, with his 3min 29.47sec the best performance over the distance in three years.
In the javelin, Finland's Tero Pitkamaki will be hoping to keep his form after winning the curtain-raiser in Berlin, with his leading rivals Norway's double Olympic champion Andeas Thorkilden and Latvia's Vadims Vasilevskis.
The sprint events have however been hit by scheduling problems which have ruled out the Americans and triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt. But former world record holder Asafa Powell of Jamaica is set for the date.
Drogba given lengthy European ban
Didier Drogba will miss at least four European matches after being banned for his reaction to Chelsea's Champions League semi-final defeat by Barcelona.
The striker was banned for six games, with two suspended for two years.
Team-mate Jose Bosingwa was banned for three European games, with a further one-match ban also suspended.
Chelsea have three days to appeal and assistant coach Ray Wilkins told BBC Sport he was sure a decision would be made on Thursday.
Both players were found guilty of making insulting comments to the referee by Uefa at the end of the game at Stamford Bridge on 6 May where Barcelona scored an injury-time equaliser which eliminated the Blues from the competition.
Terry urges Chelsea to appeal against Drogba ban.
The club was also fined £85,000 for the improper conduct of its players and the throwing of missiles by their fans.
"They're severe, we do play in an emotional game and it was an emotional evening," Wilkins, speaking about the punishments, told BBC Radio 5 Live.