Team SA sharp to ransack London

Today South Africa begins what promises to be the country's most successful campaign in the IAAF World Championship. The world athletics showpiece in London has all the ingredients of a masterpiece and, even better, Team SA looks good enough to add value and improve on previous performances. Since readmission to world sports in the early 1990s, SA has had poor pickings in the IAAF event, returning its better marks in 2009 (Berlin) and 2011 (Daegu, Korea).

Three medals in Berlin and four in Daegu served mostly to save face but they can't be noted to be counting among the best of the best. It is fitting however to compliment those athletics who gave their all for the country previously. This time we have a squad that, on paper, has the potential to return with six medals or more.

Caster Semenya was involved in the feats of those two editions, winning women's 800m gold in Berlin and silver in Daegu. Interestingly, she is among favourites to win gold medals in London. Even better, it could be double gold for Semenya  as this time she has entered the 1500m as well. And as for the 800m, her main event, this time Caster will be accompanied by upcoming Gena Lofstrand who last month set her latest personal best - 2:02.05. It is a modest mark but  Gena fearless and has the required fighting spirit for championships. In 2013 when just 17, she won the senior national 800m title after leading most of the race, to add to the juniors title she had won earlier that year.  

In the men's section, SA has several medal contenders. Everybody knows about 400m king Wayde van Niekerk, and so excting that he has been entered for 200m too. Also in the 200m are Akani Simbine and Clarence Munya, and we therefore look strong there because Munyai has shown in the Europe meet he's ready for the big stage. At just 19, and with 20.10 sec PB, Munyai has really added value to our sprint team.

More fancied teammates Van Niekerk and Simbine arrived in London with second and third best times over 200m this year: 19.84 and 19.85 respectively. And with Simbine already spoken of as top-three candidate in the 100m, it's going to be downright explosive in the sprints. It was the same fare for SA in the junior worlds in Nairobi last month, when 17-year-old boys Tshenolo Lemao and Retshidisitwe Mlenga gave SA 1-2 finishes in 100m and 200m. The biggest glory from Nairobi is that SA won the world championship by topping the medal table ahead of world athletics powerhouses.

A similar 1-2 finish for SA is in the offing in the long jump, where Luvo Manyonga (pictured) is a runaway favourite for gold. Teammate Ruswahl Samaai is also a serious contender for a medal finish as his 8.49m is second best only to Munyai who leads the 2017 season with a massive 8.65m he jumped in the SA champs in Potchefstroom on April 22. This year no other long-jumper has leaped more that 8.60, wind assisted or not, which makes Manyonga to be in his own class with four +8.60 jump this year.  Zarck Visser is the third long-jumper in Team SA but with a PB of 8.41 the best he can achieve is to steal the bronze.
In the 110m hurdles SA has a dark horse for a track medal - Antonio Alkana. On June 5, Alkana ran a fantatstic 13.11 sec to win his event. But there's more, the time was the new Africa record, obliterating the old mark of 13.24 (Brussels) by countryman Lehann Fourie. Alkana's new mark is seventh fastest time this year, but a long shot from world leaser 12.90 by Omar McLeod of Jamaica. World record holder (12.80, 2012) Arries Merritt shares fourth rank this year with 13.09, just a shade faster than Alkana. Depending on factors such as state of mind and phyiscal fitness on the day, as well as errors by others, Alkana can benefit and sneak in for a medal finish.
Other dark horses worth noting are Victor Hogan in the discus and Wenda Nel in the 400m hurdles.
My only regret about Team SA is the lack of men's 4x100m relay team, with so much talent the country has produced in the sprints these past few years.
The IAAF World Championships in London will run until August 13.

TEAM SA
Men
100m - Akani Simbine, Thando Roto
200m - Akani Simbine, Wayde van Niekerk, Clarence Munyai
400m - Wayde van Niekerk, Pieter Conradie
10 000m - Stephen Mokoka
Marathon - April Lusapho, Sibusiso Nzima, Desmond Mokgobu
110m hurdles - Antonio Alkana
Long Jump - Luvo Manyonga, Ruswahl Samaai, Zarck Visser
Shot Put - Oratio Cremona, Jaco Engelbrecht
Discus - Victor Hogan
Javelin - Rocco van Rooyen
20km walk - Shange Lebogang

Women
100m - Carina Horn
200m - Justine Palframan
800m - Caster Semenya, Gena Lofstrand
1 500m - Caster Semenya
Marathon - Mapaseka Makhanya, Jenna Challenor
400m hurdles - Wenda Nel
4x400m relay - Justine Palframan, Gena Lofstrand, Ariane Nel, Zoe Engler, Caster Semenya, Wenda Nel

Absent leadership is Pirates' downfall

Unhappy times... Orlando Pirates supporters are having it tough as their beloved club flounders.

Orlando Pirates supporters are looking forward to today's Soweto derby with a high level of despondency. In fact, to say they are looking forward to this match is somewhat inaccurate, but somehow they feel obliged to pay attention to the match because of tradition and historical rivalry with the opponent, Kaizer Chiefs. 
The Soweto derby is the biggest soccer match in South Africa, and one of the biggest on the continent. Though the encounter this afternoon is an exhibition match under the guise of the Carling Black Label Cup, when  Pirates and Chiefs meet there are no friendly pleasantries exchanged. The derby is a fight for bragging rights, and very little else matters.

For Pirates, the overwhelming sadness enveloping their supporters is not so much from the bad season they had, playing the worst football ever by the club's standards.  Yes, it was bad and ended with Pirates finishing outisde the top 8 for the first time in the 17 years of the SA premier league. In the lost cause that the 2016/17 season was for the Sea Robbers, the team also lost two league matches by six goals to Pretoria giants, SuperSport United and Mamelodi Sundowns.

But above that the club's followers are in pain over the management's lack of effort to address them over the embarassment fans experienced in the past season. The club had so many opportunities to apologise and commisserate with the fans, while also explaining with clarity the plans the club has to change the mess of 2016/17. This is the buy-in the fans needed to feel consoled by the structure that matter: the management.

However, going forward to today's game and beyond the Pirates supporters do not feel like anything has been resolved. If anything, judging by secondary information garnered from the media, it does not appear the crisis is over. Apart from uncertainty over the future of coach Kjell Jonevret, who was appointed only in February, there are several crucial areas still in limbo.
Jonevret sure does not look the part but then if he is the coach Pirates want in the new season, then let the management make that clear. Now, with rumours that former Bucs coach Milutin Sredojevic is on his way back, the mystery deepens. Lest we forget, Sredojevic left Pirates in 2006, after a short stint, purely because the management failed to protect him when the players openly undermined his authority.

Captaincy is another position in limbo at Pirates. The team was rudderless during matches last season because the club stuck out with Oupa Manyisa, who was a shadow of his former self as a player. Before his appointment as captain, his leadership qualities were unknown to the general public because we never saw them even when he was playing his best football. He was a reluctant captain and it's a mystery how and why he was chosen to lead in the first place.

The examples above point to one factor that's responsible for structural problems at Orlando Pirates: leadership. This is of poor quality at all levels, and yet right at the top sits a man respected for football brains. It's time Irvin Khoza, Orlando Pirates chairman, appoints suitable candidates in all rungs of leadership at the club.

As it things stand, clubs like SuperSport United and Bidvest Wits are doing well because of leadership quality. Compare what Pirates have to the solid structures at these two so-called small clubs: it's chalk and cheese.

Will Pirates enjoy better days in the season? I don't foresee that, despite what happens in the preseason derby match today.