World Athletics

Whether a participant or, dare I say it, a spectator - enjoy.
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Woody
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World Athletics

#1 Post by Woody » Sun Aug 13, 2017 7:22 pm

Caster Semanya, our ZA members must be impressed by him her.
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Woody
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Re: World Athletics

#2 Post by Woody » Sun Aug 11, 2019 11:12 pm

It gets a bit much when UK Athletics is compared to South African incompetence X(
For more than a decade as a newspaper correspondent in Johannesburg and Cape Town I called South African athletics' governing body to account. I exposed incompetence, occasionally with relish, at every opportunity. Sixteen years ago, I returned to the U.K. thinking my days of having such tales served up on a silver platter week-by-week had passed. But no. Today, I witnessed Premier League standards of administrative incompetence. Nothing in my 30-year journalistic career has got close to this. To make matters worse, this deed of stupefying stupidity was not committed by those hapless souls at Athletics South Africa but rather their British equivalents, UK Athletics. The European Team Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland is the second most prestigious event of the season for British athletes. It's a team competition in which 12 countries are represented by a single athlete (except in relays) in men's and women's events across 40 disciplines. After 39 events over the three days, the British team were 5th and desperate for a good showing in the final event, the men's 4x400m. Over the years, GB has excelled at the long relay and it has brought hours of joy and pride to British athletics fans. From Roger Black, Derek Redmond, Alan Pascoe and David Jenkins to Garry Cook, Phil Brown, Brian Whittle and John Regis. All have carried the relay baton to glory in a British vest. It is why when I was commentating on today's events I was confidently predicting another British glory moment - stealing victory and 3rd spot overall from the French. But moments later, I noticed lane 3 was empty. That was Britain's lane. Why? It soon emerged what had happened. British team management had made a mistake on their team's declaration (see the official document below). Instead of naming European gold medallist and double World Championships 4x400m relay bronze medallist Rabah Yousif (below right) as their first leg runner, clueless team boss Neil Black had written down the name of a different Yousif on the official entry document. In fact, it was a Yousif who cuts not just a different figure but whose name is also spelt differently …Youcef Zatat (below left). Mr Zatat was not even in Poland. It is believed he was at home watching the event on the telly. And to add to Mr Black’s embarrassment his Youcef is not a 400m runner either. He’s a shot putter. Mr Black’s error went unchecked until it was too late which left Britain’s three declared runners as well as the right Mr Yousif fuming at trackside as the starter’s pistol was fired. Britain hadn’t been allowed to run making Mr Black’s humiliation complete. And just when you thought Mr Black should have been advised to stop digging and had the shovel snatched from his grasp, UK Athletics’ coaching supremo issued this statement: “It's absolutely gutting for the athletes in particular. There was a technical error with the declaration process. We're exploring what happened. The athletes were absolutely amazing. We informed them and they took it on the chin.” Mr Black is beyond parody. Perhaps we should remind ourselves that athletics is the marquee Olympic sport and Mr Black’s programme benefits from substantial public funding. If he is a man of calibre he shall resign. Sadly, I think he isn’t and, therefore, am sure he won’t.
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