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Sascoc name team with Olympics in mind
Taking their first major step towards a perhaps overly optimistic goal at the London 2012 Olympics, South Africa's Olympic governing body have named the majority of the teams from various sporting codes for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India, in October.
Having set a target of 12 medals at the next Olympics, Sascoc have set stringent qualifying criteria for the Commonwealth showpiece and a strong 115-member team from 14 codes was named on Wednesday. The athletics and sevens rugby teams will be announced next month.
Teams must be ranked among the top five in the Commonwealth and individuals among the top four to be considered for selection, and Sascoc president Gideon Sam said it was important to stick to such strict criteria if they are to reach their goal in London. South Africa earned only one silver medal, through long jumper Khotso Mokoena, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"We need to move on from taking passengers to the Games," Sam said.
"Some will say that sport is about competing, but other nations don't look at it like that.
"They are there for the medals and it is critical for us to stick to our guns with the qualifying criteria."
South Africa placed fifth on the medals table at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, with 12 gold, 13 silver and 13 bronze medals, and Sam said it was paramount for the team to at least match that performance in Delhi.
"We have to retain our ranking or improve, which is not going to be easy," Sam said.
"But I've told them that if they can't achieve that," he added, only half jokingly, "they must stay there. They mustn't come back."
Team: Aquatics
Wendy Trott, Heerden Herman, Chad le Clos,
Gideon Louw, Mark Randall, Roland Schoeman, Riaan Schoeman, Darian
Townsend, Cameron van der Burgh.
