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Swimmers added to Games squad
Caster Semenya may be over the moon, but some athletes were left disappointed when Sascoc stuck to their guns on Wednesday and announced only eleven track and field athletes to compete at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India, in October.
Only those who satisfied the A standard qualifying criteria were picked and, for the first time, there will be no passengers as South Africa hope to at least retain position five on the medals table, if not better it.
"If we can lay the foundation with medals from athletics and swimming, the other codes will add to it, but we need to have our swimmers and athletes firing on all eight cylinders. If not, we will have serious problems," said Sascoc president Gideon Sam.
World 800m champion Semenya, cleared to run against women by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) last month, as well as world 800m champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and silver medalist Khotso Mokoena, are part of the team expected to perform.
"Without putting too much pressure on them, they need to perform for us to retain fifth position or better it."
Sam said South Africa needed to concentrate and play to its strength rather than participate in too many codes.
"It may be painful for the athletes not chosen to travel to New Dehli but, a few years down the line, they will appreciate that we made the right decision."
Sam, who has just returned from a week in Singapore at the Youth Olympics, said he had nothing but sympathy for the South Africans competing there as they were completely out of their league.
"We have to think about what we're doing in South African sport. Other countries are miles ahead of us," admitted Sam. "I felt so sorry for those athletes.
"Let this be a warning to the various sporting federations as they will be asked to account for what is going on. If the youth in Singapore were anything to go by, what have we got in store for 2016 and 2020?"
Hezekiel Sepeng, representing Athletics South Africa, said there were a lot of very unhappy athletes who won't be travelling to India but it was a new approach to only select the top-ranked athletes.
"Gideon made it clear that this campaign was to bring home medals and to equal or improve our results," said the middle distance runner who won silver medals in the 800m at the 1996 Olympics, 1998 Commonwealth Games and 1999 World Championships.
"The athletes are not really happy but if you want to go out and win medals, you have to select the right people.
"It will put a lot of pressure on the 11 athletes chosen but, hopefully, they will cope.
Sepeng said his role at ASA was to ensure the athletes' needs were taken care of and the right information was being passed on to them at the right time.
"In future, I hope to focus on development as we really need to focus on our youth.
"Singapore shows we just talk about development but nothing is actually happening.
"We're supposed to be standing here today telling you what we've done in development but we've done nothing."
Also announced on Wednesday were further representatives from rugby sevens, cycling, swimming and para powerlifting
Names added to the 115 squad announced on Wednesday:
Swimming: Jean Basson, Graeme Moore, Sebastien Rousseau, Charl
van Zyl. Manager: Laura Postma. Coaches: Graham Hill, Pierre de
Roubaix, Cedric Finch, Dean Price.
