Coaches Michael van Aswegen and Nkanyiso Mthembu are not resting on their laurels as the clock to the ASA cross-country championships on September 7 at Izak Steyl Stadium, in Vanderbijlpark, ticks down.
The mentors were busy with final tweaks, putting their athletes through their paces, when the Benoni City Times visited them at Benoni Northerns Sports Club on August 28.
Dressed in their provincial colours, the runners fully embraced the moment and responded with exuberance as the day they worked hard for all season drew nearer.
Nineteen youngsters from BNAC will represent the club when they run for CGA at the national showpiece after qualifying during the provincial championships in Kagiso on August 17.
In his autopsy of the provincials, Van Aswegen shared his excitement, saying this was because of months of work behind the scenes.
Van Aswegen was thorough in his assessment, giving those who performed glowing reviews while encouraging those in the development phase to keep working hard.
“Our young athletes performed well. From the start of the day, we had Dominique Broughton finish strong to secure a win in the U8 girls,” he said.
He gave a special mention to Rebecca Jones, André Klingenberg and Dane Rudolph, adding that Alexia Visser, who finished second in her category, continues to show growth and development.
While he expected Chelsea van Dyk and Jade Doran would qualify, Van Aswegen hailed Kayla Botha, Mila Rossouw and Joshua Broughton for their efforts this season but reserved special praise for Tamica Lloyd.
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“Tamica has shown time and time again that if she has the right mindset and approach to her races, she can mix it with the best on any given day. We are happy with her achievements this season.”
The only casualty for the coach was Zandreh van der Merwe, who was withdrawn due to illness 1.2km into his race at the provincials.
Commenting on what this achievement means to him, Mthembu expressed his happiness, saying it was all because of hard work and commitment.
“As a young coach, I’m happy. I still need to work hard for our club. Coach Mike and I have done well for our club,” he said.
Mthembu said he was proud of all his athletes, expressing immense pride in Joshua Helena and Carmen Kotze for their resilience and hard work.
“We will work hard to help those who didn’t qualify. Two of my runners were sick. They will come back stronger next season.”
While all eyes will be on Siyanda Madlabane and Bokamoso Nonyane, who didn’t drop a single event during the CGA season, the coach explained he was only expecting a gold medal from Madlabane, who has experience at a national level after obtaining two silvers from the past two nationals.
“I wish everyone the best of luck. I will not place any expectations on Bokamoso because it is his first nationals. He is going there to learn.
“Siyanda has two silvers. I expect gold from him because of his experience. But if he returns with a silver, we will accept it and keep going back to the drawing board,” he said.
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