SASCOC president Gideon Sam said good progress has been made in taking South African sport forward but as always, there’s work to be done.

Sam was speaking after a two-day President’s Council meeting at Birchwood, Boksburg.

The meeting of the South African Olympic governing body was addressed by various key note speakers who provided input in various areas such as unity, transformation and representitivity.

“One of the most important areas is that of unity and it was good to see the engagement on these issues. Professor Denver Hendricks was very good in his input regarding  this aspect.

“What’s obvious is that we have to have unity in sport if we are to success at any level. In fact we need unity in all aspects like social structure. Some say that its an economic reality and so on and it remains a dream to have perfect unity but its something that we have to continuously strive for.”

In terms of representivity Sam said: “It’s high time that we go into the various federations and just have a look at this subject but I must also stress that this is most definitely not a witchhunt of any sort.”

Sam says that SASCOC continues to work closely with the various federations under its umbrella.”We are getting them to take stock in terms of the process that we follow at SASCOC and that they also need to follow.”
“It’s most important that the federations must understand that we will take serious steps against people who are not up there with the plan. The federations by their very nature as members of SASCOC need to follow our programmes etc.”

Sam says that one of the areas that will be looked at closely continues to be school sport. “We need finality and get the educators involved. There’s the whole issue of funding, the usual Lotto and Sports Department but maybe we have to go back to the Lotto in areas of the funding criteria and as far as the Sports Department, maybe look at lessening the bureacracy.”

The subject of High Performance centres also came up for discussion. “Someone has to pay for this and the federations are buying in. We must perhaps target the Department of Finance in this regard because after all we are very serious about SA sport.

“All in all I think the spirit was very good and there is no doubt that we are making progress on many fronts. What happens next is that we will have a sports council meeting on 10-11 April where we will concretise decisions taken today.”

SASCOC President Gideon Sam will host a two-day Presidents Council in Boksburg this weekend, 6-7 March.

The meeting, to be facilitated by Dr Willie Basson, will cover a wide range of topics, including transformation, performance in multisport international events, development and unification.

Speaking ahead of the Birchwood Hotel meeting, Sam said: “We’re going to be taking a fairly critical look at things  and trying to see if things started 10-15 years ago are coming to fruition or not. Perhaps we need to make more realistic promises rather than airy-fairy promises.

“For instance, did the unity process really succeed. As matters stand, probably 90% of the presidents at SASCOC are still white. Also if we were really serious about previous development structures the youngsters from years gone by would be right up there with the very best now.

“People may well say that its an issue of not enough funding, political interference, lack of structures and this meeting is all about looking each other in the eye and working things out.”

Sam went on to say that a variety of speakers will address the meeting. “We have a variety of people involved this weekend, all experts in their field and addressing the different issues like unity, transformation etc. I will lay out what we want to achieve by looking back and then looking ahead to as far as 2020.

“Perhaps people were too idealistic a while back, maybe instead of developing all nine provinces simultaneously we should have looked at three provinces and concentrated on them at first, stuff like that.

“After the outcome of these two days we plan on taking a roadshow to the various provinces to get further input. I think the realistic thing will be to look at the next five-year period. We constantly need to check ourselves and re-evaluate in any particular field whether it be coaching, administration or something else.”

Times for the meeting will be 10am-5.45pm on Saturday and 9am-1pm on Sunday.

The South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) is joining forces with horseracing and tote betting operator Phumelela to present Africa’s richest series of races, the SASCOC Triple Crown for three-year-olds.

SASCOC will also showcase its sporting champions on Champions Day, which is Africa’s richest raceday and incorporates the last leg of the Triple Crown.

Phumelela Sales Executive Clyde Basel said there were natural synergies between horseracing and athletics. “The partnership between Phumelela and SASCOC will deliver important benefits for both sports.”

SASCOC President Gideon Sam said he was delighted that sport and the sport of horseracing were teaming up. “Our association with the Triple Crown and Champions Day will enhance SASCOC’s visibility and enable us to market and promote our business, which includes high-performance sport and the development of Team South Africa,” said Sam.

“It also provides an ideal opportunity for other companies to participate in these two great events and by so doing to financially assist SASCOC’s Bursary Scheme. This in turn will enable SASCOC to offer uninterrupted preparation to our athletes as they prepare for London 2012,” Sam added.

Julian Bryant said that Primedia Sport, which last year entered into an agreement with Phumelela to jointly market and promote  the sport of thoroughbred horseracing, was delighted to be associated with Phumelela and SASCOC in staging the SASCOC Triple Crown.

“It is set to greatly assist with the development of sport in South Africa and also the SA Olympic team in their quest for 12 medals in 2012,” Bryant said.

The Triple Crown is billed as horseracing’s ultimate test and with good cause. The series comprises three top-level races in just eight weeks – the R1-million Gauteng Guineas over 1600m, the R2-million SA Classic over 1800m and the R1.5-million SA Derby over 2450m.

All three races are run at Turffontein, Phumelela’s flagship racing venue.

There’s a R2-million bonus awaiting the horse that succeeds in winning all three legs, but it takes an exceptional horse to accomplish that feat – one who combines a rare blend of speed, stamina, courage and determination. In short a true champion!

The mighty Horse Chestnut, who many rank the best horse in South African racing history, is the only horse to have succeeded in winning the Triple Crown since its inception. He won the inaugural event in 1999.

The Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India in October have become the new target for Paul Treu’s embattled Sevens rugby side.

Retaining their IRB World Series title now looks an extremely long shot and Treu has accordingly, and realistically, re-adjusted his sights.

“It’s a good time to start building for the future, and that includes the Commonwealth Games as our first goal after the series,” said Treu.

The sevens side have two tough pools in the next two legs of the series in Wellington and Las Vegas. They are in the same pool as series leaders New Zealand in Wellington and if they end second there it looks likely that they’ll face Fiji for a third time this season. Fiji have become SA’s hoodoo team of late, eliminating them in the quarters of both the Dubai and George tournaments.

There are four new caps in the squad for Wellington and Las Vegas –Philip van der Walt, Steven Hunt, Hoffman Maritz and Branco du Preez as well as Cecil Afrika, who was a newcomer in the squad when SA ended third at last year’s World Games in Taiwan.

“We have some very good young players and now we still have six tournaments to get to the right combination and standard,” said Treu. Du Preez and Afrika will take on the sweeping duties after Renfred Dazel has again been sidelined with a troublesome knee injury.

Our wrestlers returned from the recent Commonwealth Senior tournament in India 12 medals to the good.

Leading the way was Richard Addinall who took gold and lead the South African team to second place in the team competition in the Greco Roman category.

In Olympic Freestyle wrestling Pretoria’s Heinrich Barnes placed second. Barnes, who is currently studying at the Oregon State University, lost in the final against Olympic bronze medal winner, Sushil Kumar of India.

Other medal winners in the Greco Roman division were: Hugues Bella Lufu and Andries Schutte (gold) and Carlo van Wyk, Marius Loots, Richard Ferreira, Dean van Zyl and Andrew Davidson, who all took bronze.

In die women’s division Mpho Madi and Sonja Coetzee came second while Brumilda Leeuw won the bronze medal.

Wrestlers from 11 countries participated at the tournament which is part of the preparations for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi, India, in October.

There were more medals for South Africa with our youth wrestlers claiming four golds at the Commonwealth tournament held in Singapore earlier this month.

In the boys division Ivan Smith, Terry van Rensburg and Kallie Erasmus took gold while in the girls division Elri Neethling emerged victorious and also had the honour of being named wrestler of the tournament.

Other South African medal winners were Alex Bornman, Niel Faasen, Morgan Engelbrecht, Andries Schutte, Juanita Olivier, S Peacock and Levona Williams (silver) and Elandre Beukes, Schalk Steenkamp and Regan Erasmus (bronze).

The Queen’s Baton Relay embarked on a whirlwind tour of the Mother City Sunday.

In the country on a worldwide tour ahead of the XIX Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India in October, Cape Town was the baton’s third port of call after arriving in Johannesburg Saturday and then visiting Durban, also yesterday.

The baton was met at Cape Town International airport by Hajera Kajee, first vice-president of South African Olympic governing body SASCOC and the city’s mayor, Alderman Dan Plato.

A group of cyclists, lead by national rider Luthando Kaka, then took the baton to the Gugulethu Indoor Sports Complex.

“It was actually quite difficult,” said Kaka.”It was only about an eight-kilometre ride but it was difficult riding with one hand and holding this fancy baton in the other. I don’t think my fellow cyclists were keen to hold it because the pressure of dropping this smart baton would have been too much!”

The baton’s entourage were treated to a gymnastics performance in Gugulethu and then the baton moved on to Heideveld with a group of athletes.

Members of local Premier Soccer League club Santos were on hand as well as local minstrels, the Heideveld Entertainers who provided a backdrop. The baton then went to the historic venue of the castle in the city centre where West Coast “Rieldancers” performed. The national Sevens rugby team, led by captain Mzwandile Stick, then jogged to the Waterfront.

There the baton boarded the Sikhululekile ferry to the world heritage site of Robben Island.

Former prisoner and now tour guide, Kgotso Ntsoelengoe, heard the tale of the baton’s journey through Africa and said in the days when  the maximum security prison was still in operation the prisoners also had their own “national games”
“We called it our own Summer Games, an annual tournament but to us it was just as big as the Commonwealth Games or Olympics!”

The torch moves on to Bloemfontein on Monday before wrapping up it’s four-day visit to the country with a function at Olympic House in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

South Africa was the baton’s 21st country visited and it now heads off to Lesotho.

Fast times are on the cards as South Africa’s young talent prepares to race for A qualifying times at the Telkom SA Level Three Swimming Championships at the Joan Harrison Swimming Pool in East London from 12-16 March 2010, in an attempt to qualify for the Youth Olympic Games.

Girl power will be on display when rising swim stars such as Vanessa Mohr, Oneida Cooper and Peggy De Villiers lead the challenge for medals at the five-day event.

Mohr, 15, who hails from Tshwane, rose to fame in winning seven gold and one silver medal in the same event last year. She will line up in the 50-metre, 100 and 200 butterfly, 50 and 100 freestyle and the 50, 100 and 200 backstroke.

Peggy De Villiers from Cape Town, who has a hearing disability, will be in the 50 and 100 metres freestyle line up, while Gauteng-based Cooper will show her skills in the backstroke races as she swims the 50, 100 and 200m.

Among the boys, KZN’s Chad le Clos (50, 100 and 200 backstroke, 50, 100, 200 and 400 freestyle, 50, 100 and 200 butterfly, 200 and 400 metres individual medley and 200 breaststroke) has the potential to produce adrenalin-rush performances that will make the trip to East London more than worth the while.

Competition will be stiff with local favourite Luke Pendock from Border Aquatics in the 50 and 100 freestyle, with Eastern Province’s Giles Mayberry taking to the water in the 50 freestyle, 50 breaststroke and 50 butterfly.

Also participating are Tshwane’s Pierre Kuene (50 and 100 freestyle and 50 and 100 butterfly), Western Province’s Lyle Aloile (50 and 100 freestyle, 50 butterfly and 50 and 100m) and KZN’s Brett Walsh (50 and 100 metres freestyle, 50 and 100 metres butterfly, 50 breaststroke and 50 backstroke).

In wishing the athletes the best of luck for the competition, Swimming SA CEO Shaun Adriaanse said: “SA’s Level Three age group swimmers have a great opportunity to display their talent at these very important Youth Olympic Trials and I am sure we will witness history in the making as they strive for qualification and inclusion by SASCOC in the team which will represent South Africa in Singapore.”

The daily programme in East London will see heat sessions starting at 8.30am with the evening’s programme of finals commencing at 5pm.

Day one of volleyball’s African qualification tournament for the Youth Olympics later this year saw South Africa beating Liberia and the DR Congo beating Morocco.

Durban’s University of Technology is hosting the tournament as teams try and qualify for the inaugural Youth Games in Singapore.

The South Africans beat Liberia 3-0 (25-16 25-18 25-13) and Morocco went down 3-0 to the DR Congo.

The South Africans started off  while patiently building up a strong lead. Their efforts were rewarded with a 16-11 lead which put them in a commanding position to win the opening set. SA’s star performers, skipper Dean Layters who did not put a foot wrong, explosive attacker, Gerald Chetty and the effervescent middle attacker Colin Wessels combined well to register a 25-16 first set win.

What frustrated the Liberian attack force more was that Colin Wessels and the tall and strongly built Velisa Ntshuntshe seriously limited their chances of putting points on the board with their huge out stretched hand that penetrated their space during the execution of the block.

Whenever local lad, Gerald Chetty powered his way past the blockers the home fans celebrated his achievement with loud cheering. SA went on to register a 25-18 second set win that killed even the smallest spark of resistance from their visitors.

However had the Liberians exploited SA’s glaring weakness in picking up the ‘dinks’ into unguarded areas of the court, the ‘do or die’ third set could have gone their way. Chetty, Layters, Wessels, Ntshuntshe and Thompson closed the set with a  25-17 win.

In the other game, fans were stunned by tournament dark horses RDC who crushed Morocco in straight sets.

Using their powerful jump service to full advantage, DR Congo eased into a 16-9 lead which forced the Moroccans onto the back foot. The occasional resistance from the North Africans, especially from Soufiane Faraji and Soufiane Lamnine did not deter the DRC as they closed proceedings with a sparkling 25-13 first set win.

When the Moroccans took the fight to their high riding opponents, they were rewarded with a few quick points that brought them close to taking the lead for the first time. How ever, Morocco’s chances of upsetting DRC were dashed when playmaker Amine Zayani’s sets gave his attackers little or no chance of passing DRC’s huge blocks. With DRC’s left handed maestro, Tshanga Tshibangu in devastating form, the Moroccans were forced to concede defeat by a 25-21 margin.

With service reception errors rearing its ugly head from time to time in the Moroccan team, Coach Said Montaouakil’s team stared defeat in the face when the Congolese team posted a 19-12 lead. Solid blocking from DRC’s ‘twin-towers’, Mbuli Inginda and Tshanga Tstugangu further frustrated the North Africans who had no option but to roll over and play dead. DRC raced to a commanding 25-14 win in double quick time in the third set.

Our Under-17 girls hockey team have their sights set on Singapore and the inaugural Youth Olympics later this year.

This was their reward for beating Namibia 5-0 in the final of the Africa qualifying tournament in East London at the weekend.

But the South African boys weren’t as lucky, going down 3-2 on penalties to Ghana.

The in-form Jacinta Jubb opened the scoring with two first half goals as the locals went into the half-time break 2-0 up.

The South Africans added a further three goals in the second half and captain Jenna-Leigh du Preez fittingly added the final goal. There was more joy for the South Africans with Bronwynne Kretzmann being named player of the tournament.

The boys’ final saw the final score ending at 2-2 and despite the 20 minutes of extra time there was nothing to separate the sides.

Ghana had earlier taken a 2-0 lead through Johnny Botsio and captain Alfred Ntiamoah but the in-form Grant Glutz scored twice to force the penalty shoot-out.

Ghana supplied the Player of the Tournament in the form of Botsio.

Botsio and Glutz were joint tournament scorers while East London’s Tiffany Jones reigned supreme among the girls.