Not a bad year for SA sport

What would you choose as South Africa's sporting moment of 2013?

I would go for Cameron van der Burgh and Giulio Zorzi sharing the 50m breaststroke podium at the World Swimming Champ-ionships in Barcelona.

Van der Burgh, with his gold medal, and Zorzi, wearing his bronze, stood arm-in-arm as Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika played for them.

They have been training partners and best friends since they were kids - that moment was like a long-time dream come true.

A special occasion, but one of several for SA sports fans this year.

For sheer sporting achievement, my top prize goes to Chad le Clos for claiming the butterfly double at the World Champs, a feat previously achieved only by Michael Phelps.

Bafana beat Spain in a football friendly; Daryl Impey wore the Tour de France yellow jersey for two stages; and Lusapho April came third in the New York Marathon.

Johan Cronje took the 1500m bronze at the World Athletics Championships; the Springboks showed good improvement; and Orlando Pirates made the final of the African Champions League.

In the so-called smaller sports, cyclist Greg Minnaar retained his Downhill World Championship crown; wheelchair tennis player Lucas Sithole won the US Open; rowers David Hunt and Vincent Breet won gold in the men's pairs at the under-23 World Championships; and Simpiwe Vetyeka became SA's first WBA world boxing champion in 20 years.

There were disappointments too, perhaps the biggest being Oscar Pistorius's fall from grace for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine's Day.

The administrations of several sports federations worked hard on their circus acts, with the clown prince award surely going to Athletics SA.

Bafana missed out on a semifinal berth in the African Nations Cup, and then failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

SA's 2012 Olympic champion rowing team, Caster Semenya and canoeist Bridgitte Hartley are looking to rediscover their medal-winning form.

All in all, you've got to admit that we are not doing badly for a country with a great national sports plan that has yet to be implemented, and which has been gathering dust since being drafted in 2012.

Can you imagine what might be possible if we, as a country, made a concerted effort?

The nation recently lost Nelson Mandela, whose Madiba Magic has served our sports stars so well over the years.

But now that he's gone, it is up to us to recreate that magic, even if it is in the guise of sports science and hard graft.

One of the most heartening events this year was the announcement of an athletics academy in Pretoria, aimed at high school kids.

The project, which will cost in the region of R15-million a year, is being fully funded by a donor who wants to remain anonymous.

It's almost like a mini-sports plan, and I'll be watching it with keen interest over the next few years.

This has been a decent year for SA sport, but with a little more effort, we will hopefully have even more to celebrate in the future.