Feast to famine: Why SA should expect a medal drought at the World Champs

With the national team hoping to bounce back from a below-par 2019 campaign at the IAAF World Championships starting in Doha on Friday, there are a few athletes who will be chasing podium places, and it’s not all doom and gloom for the sport.

After a steady rise in recent years, however, South African athletics has faced a decline at elite level this season and the national squad is unlikely to match the six medals achieved at the 2017 edition of the global showpiece.

A relatively bleak image has been painted on the eve of the biennial championships.

We take a look at a few reasons why.

WAYDE VAN NIEKERK

Wayde Van Niekerk of South Africa celebrates second place in the Men’s 200m final during day seven of the 16th IAAF World Athletics Championships London 2017 at The London Stadium on August 10, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

A gem so rare he may well be the best athlete South Africa has ever produced, Van Niekerk’s absence from the track provides multiple blows.

Capable of competing against the best in the world across a range of distances, he earned 400m gold and 200m silver at the 2017 World Championships in London, and if he hadn’t subsequently mashed his knee he would probably be targeting another double in Doha.

Without his presence, both the SA 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams will have to do without a potentially lethal injection of pace, and though he seems confident he’ll be racing again next year, Van Niekerk’s delayed comeback might be so significant it could cut the country’s medal haul in half.

CASTER SEMENYA

Caster Semenya of South Africa smiles after winning the women’s 800m during the Prefontaine Classic at Cobb Track & Angell Field on June 30, 2019 in Stanford, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

The central figure in one of the most controversial debates in international sport, Semenya will be notably absent when the field lines up for the women’s 800m final.

Much like Van Niekerk, her absence also delivers more than one knock to the team, and she too would have contested for multiple medals after securing 800m gold and 1 500m bronze in London two years ago.

Semenya has opted to kick a soccer ball around in the domestic women’s league while she waits for a court decision in her fight against gender rules, and in her forced absence, South Africa will have to forfeit not one but two very good medal chances.

INJURED SPRINTERS

Akani Simbine of South Africa compete in Heat 1 of the Mens 100m during the Muller Birmingham Grand Prix & IAAF Diamond League event at Alexander Stadium on August 18, 2019 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)

With some of the fastest men in the country sidelined by injuries, the fact that Akani Simbine remains among the medal contenders in the 100m event, along with a second-string 4x100m relay team, is credit to the tremendous depth South Africa boasts in the discipline.

Aside from Van Niekerk, the sprint relay team is without the likes of Henricho Bruintjies, Emile Erasmus and Thando Dlodlo, but they’re not down and out.

Simbine will be joined by experienced campaigners Simon Magakwe and Anaso Jobodwana, as well as in-form athlete Chederick van Wyk and prodigies Thando Dlodlo and Clarence Munyai, but the prospect of seeing a full-strength national team in full flight will have to be put on hold once again.

WOMEN’S STRUGGLE

Sunette Viljoen during the day 3 of the 2019 Sizwe Medical Fund & 3SixtyLife ASA Senior Track & Field and Combined Events Championships at Germiston Athletics Stadium on April 27, 2019 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Roger Sedres/Gallo Images)

With sprinter Carina Horn testing positive for two banned substances and Semenya still sidelined by her suspension, there will be only five South African women at the showpiece, in a national squad which features 26 men.

Among the women who will compete, two-time World Championships medallist Sunette Viljoen has displayed none of her consistency or class this season and her chances of returning to the podium are slim at best, while world junior 400m hurdles champion Zeney van der Walt hasn’t been able to find another gear at senior level this year.

As good as they are at domestic level, sprinter Tebogo Mamathu, hurdler Rikenette Steenkamp and distance runner Dom Scott-Efurd are equally unlikely to make an impact against the global elite, and the lack of depth in South African women’s athletics is an ongoing area of concern, as will be made evident in Doha once again.

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