Chris Dube

SO those very fit athletic runners that can run and run and run in those events we all know as marathons have been told they need to come back and ‘prove form’ before they can get on that Athletic SA-sponsored trip to the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Aleck Skhosana, who heads Athletics SA, wants to take marathon runners that will have run in the SA Nationals Championships apparently but the course in East London will mean they run a slower time than if they go chase the wind in Hannover, Shanghai, etcetera etcetera.

And the qualifying times run overseas will not be enough it seems. So those that have been sweating it out over-the-seas thinking they’ll just come back and jump onto that plane that will be full thanks to football managing to get two teams into Rio 2016.

So Athletics SA do not have apparatus and personnel that can keep track of the few runners South Africa has on the world marathon scene.

In this age where you only to click ‘Follow’ in order to know when Maphaseka Makhanya has a taken a shower, Athletics SA needs athletes to travel back to the country so that they can ‘prove their fitness’?

Athletics SA doesn’t want these runners sending edited videos or photoshopped pictures of them running and hammering those Olympic qualifying times.

Athletics SA doesn’t want to have to sit in front of an HD television and watch a 3 hourr marathon just to keep tabs on a marathon runner.

Athletics SA doesn’t want to log on to the internet and check where these runners are finishing in international marathon. No, the athletes must come here and ‘prove their fitness.’

No need to win the National Champs, just prove your fitness. I wonder how many kilometres one must run in order to show their fitness.

So if the runner comes to East London runs the full marathon and comes in third-lastthey will have proven their fitness?

A runner who has been participating in marathons for the past two years preparing for the Olympics which all and sundry knew would be there after every four years has not shown that they are fit? Is there a fitness meter here in SA?

Athletics SA does know see what the problem is? The body has put the criteria in black and white and it now wants to see if these internationally acclaimed athletes are fit, finish and klaar.

Trying to find the reasoning and logic behind all this is like trying to find Orlando Pirates on the latest Absa Premiership log really.