Wayde van Niekerk's 400m gold-medal winning performance at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing should go down as one of the greatest ever by a South African athlete. It made him the fourth-fastest man in history - the fastest not born in the US - and puts him only 0.3s off legend Michael Johnson's world record. I can't think of a better performance since we were readmitted to international athletics in 1992.A day later, Anaso Jobodwana produced another SA record to win bronze in chasing Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin to the line in the 200m. It continued his steady progression into a world-class sprinter.Their journeys to the podium have been quite different. Jobodwana is an "export", who left his home in King William's Town in 2011, seeking education and the competition and professionalism that the US university system provides.That strategy has worked for our swimmers in the past, and though we have not failed entirely to develop talent here, it is an indictment of our systems that our athletes are choosing emigration as their best route to success.Van Niekerk is an example of locally developed excellence.A product of Grey Bloem, famous for producing Springbok rugby players, he remains based at the University of the Free State, guided by coach Ans Botha and her team.The two share an innate ability, or a predisposition for speed and family support.Van Niekerk's parents were both excellent athletes. His talent was honed by a stepfather who coached him early in his running career. Jobodwana has been described by a coach as a "pogo stick running down the track". (This passes as a compliment to a sprinter - it's all about the springs! Van Niekerk's parents were both high-jumpers.)More tellingly, their success stories draw attention to the absence - rather than the presence - of a structured system that invests in and supports talent from a young age.I'm struck by a story Van Niekerk told earlier this year. He had just finished fourth at the 2010 World Junior Championships, missing a bronze medal by 0.02s in the 200m, when adidas offered to sponsor him. "It was simply about going out and running. I was quite raw and didn't know much about the sport."I was really caught by surprise when a big company like adidas approached me. I was amazed that someone wanted to invest in me."Let that sink in. So "abandoned" or neglected is young talent in South Africa that a young man, the fourth-fastest junior on earth, is amazed that someone wants to invest in him.The pathway to success, let alone offers of basic support, should not take an athlete by surprise. Another example of this neglect is the failure of our system to provide even basic opportunities for world-class athletes to practise together.Members of our 4x100m relay team were viable medal contenders, but failed to reach the final after a botched relay exchange.In the aftermath, 100m sprinter Henricho Bruintjies had strong words, calling the lack of training support a "recipe for failure".Jobodwana echoed those sentiments on Twitter by hoping "that next time we're given proper preparation to do our best". Those words, so unusual from athletes towards their "superiors", constitute strong, telling criticism.They also constitute a reality check because, while we rightly celebrate the success of a few in Beijing, we should also recognise that South Africa does not fail to PRODUCE talent. Our failure is to DEVELOP it. It is only by luck, and individual will and exceptional ability that we achieve what we do.That won't stop the minister of sport and whichever administrators remain at the dysfunctional Athletics South Africa from basking in the glory of others' hard work over coming days, but it leaves me heartened and discouraged at the same time. There should be so many more like them...