As he entered the home straight to win the BNAC night race 5km men’s event on October 26, a jubilant Andile Sigasa outstretched both his arms and went sideways, mimicking an airplane.
This is a victory celebration so familiar it brought back memories of when our downtrodden national soccer team, Bafana Bafana, was at the summit of African football.
The Reiger Park resident ran a good race, outrunning a crowd of almost 1 100 participants in the 5km.
After he cut the ribbon, I ran after him to get his views on his performance. With hands on his knees to recover, I fired the first question but Andile didn’t give a response.
He then raised his index finger and pointed to his ear. Frustrated, I went closer and continued firing questions thinking he couldn’t hear me because of the noise.
Calmly, the 22-year old pointed to a spot on his cheek between the mouth and chin. Realising that I was not understanding him, he showed me his hearing aid.
Embarrassed, I looked to my side to see if no one was watching. To our right, Andile’s mother Ntombi, had been watching us all along. She calmly said: “He is deaf.”
Andile has been deaf since birth and has been running since the age of eleven. His big celebration came from a successful defence of a title he won in 2019.
“I’m happy to have won. Running makes me happy and it keeps me healthy,” he said.
“I won here on November 8, 2019. I currently don’t have a coach or club. I wish to one day complete the Comrades Marathon.”
The encounter with Andile left me wondering whether administrative bodies such as the Central Gauteng Athletics (CGA) make special provisions for athletes with special needs.
CGA’s development officer Siphiwe Sikhosana explained that there are provisions that cater for athletes like Andile.
“We do have events with athletes with such disabilities and also have associate structures.
“As they can’t hear the gun at the start, one of the provisions in place is having a flag to signal the start of the race,” Sikhosana said.
Importantly, Sikhosana stated, athletes with special needs should inform the race organisers and race referees on the day of the race about their disability.
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