What a bunch of ASAholes: Federation bungled athlete selection for World Championships

The real reason behind Athletics SA’s controversial world championship selection policy has emerged — bumbling buffoonery.

ASA omitted 14 athletes who qualified for the showpiece starting in London next Friday. The federation offered reasons for discarding 13, but athletics insiders say the  explanations are fraught with rudimentary errors.

An e-mail, issued by ASA CEO Richard Stander, states that “based on current form, the athletes below, if selected, will not make it past the heats to the semifinals”.

But it turns out ASA based its decision on the wrong data, and that 10 of those athletes have in fact produced performances this year that would have qualified for semifinals, or made the top 16, at the past world championships in Beijing in 2015 and at the Rio Olympics last year.

ASA’s estimated marks to make the top 16 were in several cases actually what was needed to make top eight or better or, in two instances, win medals.

Its 1hr 28min 21sec estimation for the women ’s 20km walk would have taken gold in Rio, and the 14min 43.42sec forecast in the women ’s 5,000m would have won silver at Beijing 2015.

In another bizarre explanation, the document dismisses SA’s top three men’s 400m hurdlers — including Commonwealth Games champion Cornel Fredericks and veteran LJ van Zyl — because Pretoria-based under-18 world champion Sokwakhana Zazini runs faster. But the youth hurdles Zazini jumps are more than 7cm lower than for seniors.

“This proves they know nothing, zip, zero, f*** all about athletics,” said a top coach.

"The level of knowledge at the national federation, it’s shocking,” said another.

A total of 38 SA athletes achieved qualifying standards set by the sport’s world governing body, the IAAF. But only 18 beat tougher qualifying criteria imposed by ASA, insisting they wanted to lift the standard of the sport.

They selected five of the 20 IAAF qualifiers, and added a sixth with three others specifically for the women’s 4x400m.

ASA yesterday accepted quota invitations — which the IAAF uses to fill spots with insufficient qualifiers — for discus-thrower Victor Hogan and 100m hurdler Rikenette Steenkamp, pushing the total team size to 29.

ASA also bungled its initial selection of Hogan, first insisting he had achieved the ASA standard even though he hadn’t. Then they tried to pass him off as the African  champion from 2016. But he was officially stripped of the title for a failed dope test on December 15 2016. His suspension ended in late June.

SA’s 14th IAAF qualifier, not mentioned in the ASA document, was Russell Tucker, theAfrican discus runner-up who was elevated to champion after Hogan’s suspension.