Road to Wales and Poland - the story With only a few days left before our team will compete in Wales, we would like to give a breakdown of how events unfolded the last few months. SA Championships An important first step of the current process in trail running was to establish national championships for our runners. There are various reasons for this but an important aim was to use these events as springboard for top runners to compete internationally. We need to create inspiration, we need to create heroes and champions and we need to give recognition. This, as most aspects in our sport, is still a work in progress, but we needed to start somewhere. We decided to select teams to two World Championships for trail running in 2013. The one falls under the International Association for Ultra running (IAU) and is the World Ultra Trail Championships (taking place every second year) over 75km in the North of Wales on July 6. The other falls under the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) and is the World Long Distance Mountain Challenge (45km) near Szklarska Poreba, Poland on August 3. Our participation is possible because South Africa (via ASA) is a member of both these organizations. How did we select The teams were chosen using two main principles: 1. Races in trail running over similar distances cannot compare in the same way as say the road marathon, because the big differences in gradient and terrain cause the performances of the runners to be incomparable. In future we envisage a series of races through which runners can qualify but since that is not in place yet, we decided on using only the performances at the SA Champs as criterium for 2013. This is far from ideal but should only happen this year if the proposed points system gets implemented. 2. Both world championships allow for 3 men, 3 women and a team manager to get free accommodation, meals and transport at the event, thus the initial decision to select the first 3 from each gender at the SA Champs to the team. It is important to note that at the time of selections in early March, ASA, although already murky at top level, was still ready to organize and pay for our trips to these particular events, as they do for all other teams to international championships. However, soon after that the fallout hit us directly when the bank account at ASA was frozen. I’ll refrain from getting into the details of this, except to say that this issue is still not resolved. It is equally important to note that there are indeed enough funds available in this account to carry our costs but it will be some time before the financial side of things will run smoothly. The undertaking also still stands that we could be reimbursed (even if only partially) for our costs, although we should perhaps take that merely as a statement at this stage. The reality of this situation and the direct implications for the team in that we would have had to organize their own trips and pay our own flights, visums, etc. were put to them from the outset and the chosen team members indicated that they would at least try to get the necessary funding. Broadly speaking these costs amount to between R10,000 and R12,000 per person and it just so happens (fortunately?) that we have two totally different teams resulting in only the team manager that goes to both events. Let me again emphasize that under normal circumstances, teams from ASA to international championships does not have to pay their own costs. Next year this time, if all goes well, we will be back to where we should be. Bigger team When paying our own costs became a reality the decision was made to also select a 4th member from each gender from each championship to the team. This was done because both World Champs allow for a 4th member to officially take part as long as they pay their own accommodation and meals. Since us as South Africans are paying our own costs to get there, we thought we might as well increase the team, considering that the only difference would be in the local expenses. Another reason for the increase in team size is that our participation in international events is still young and it would be good for South Africa to get experience at these events and groom future leaders and team managers for our top runners. Who is going Based on all the factors above the following teams were selected for the two events: IAU World Trail Championships – (based on the positions at the inaugural SA ultra trail champs at the Addo Elephant Trail Run on March 3, 2013.) MEN WOMEN 1. Nic de Beer 1. Tracy Zunckel 2. William Robinson 2. Landie Greyling 3. Charl Souma 3. Chantel Nienaber 4. Christiaan Greyling 4. Linda Doke WMRA World long distance challenge – based on the positions at the inaugural SA long distance trail champs at the Jonkershoek Mountain Challenge on May 5, 2013. MEN WOMEN 1. Thabang Madiba 1. Katya Soggot 2. Michael Bailey 2. Robin Kime 3. AJ Calitz 3. Anita O’Brien 4. Kane Reilly 4. Ronel Nattrass Withdrawals Subsequently to this the following withdrawals took place: 1. William Robinson was hospitalized in April with a serious illness. Fortunately Will has recovered well and although not much training is possible yet, this popular runner will definitely be cutting up the trails in the near future. 2. Nic de Beer has been suffering from injuries since AfricanX and couldn’t put in the training that was necessary for him to do well in Wales. This is a great pity, since Nic was in the form of is life and looked supreme in all his races. However, it must be said that the cost issue played a big role in his decision and is a prime example of how politics can harm the career of an athlete. 3. AJ Calitz already had earlier plans for a visit to Europe in June and another trip in August would have been too much. Luckily he ended his trip with a great win at the Verdon Canyon Challenge and now the world knows about one more top Saffa trail runner. Due to the two withdrawals for Wales we added Dirk Cloete to the team who will also run at the IAU event next Saturday. What about Wales At this point we can report that all arrangements have been finalized and approved locally and by the event organizers at both events and the Wales team is bristling with excitement for next Saturday. Christiaan and Landie Greyling are already in the UK, while Chantel Nienaber has left yesterday (Friday). Tracy Zunckel leaves on Tuesday and the rest of us on Wednesday. We will be staying in the The Trevone, a Victorian style hotel on the beachfront in Llandudno, on the north coast and most popular holiday resort in Wales. The course is about 25km to the south, just outside Llanwrst, in Gwydyr forest and consists of 5 x 15km laps of a technical forest run (Note: the spelling of all Welsh names in this paragraph is indeed correct). All official ceremonies and meetings will happen on Friday and then on Saturday, starting at 09:00, we will be up against about 80 men and 60 women from 22 countries. For more info and photos, please go to our Facebook page (SA Team IAU World Champs 2013) or visit worldtrailwales2013.org. It is currently summer in Wales so the weather conditions should be exactly like the current Western Cape weather. No acclimatization needed. I will personally doing a live Twitter feed (signal permitting) on @sportannouncer during the event on Saturday to update you on how the race unfolds. Keep in mind that we are also competing in the team competition (first 3 per gender). The politics It has been a conscious decision not too put too much focus on these teams in the build up to the championships because there was no assurance that the current political battle would not have an effect on our organization. Team management took the responsibility to handle these issues internally and allow the athletes to prepare properly. As explained in a previous letter, SASCOC has no jurisdiction over trail running whatsoever and they have no influence in any of our activities or decisions. I will send out another letter with more information on the team to Poland but would like to thank the enormous support we received from our community. As you may have seen yesterday (Friday), Wildtrail started an initiative that managed to raise enough funds in one day to enable our SA champion, Thabang Madiba, to go and show the world just how good he is (thanks Debbie Aggenbag). The atmosphere in trail running in South Africa is currently the direct opposite of that in other running disciplines. As always your comments, suggestions and criticism is welcome and appreciated. More subjects on the process of trail running will be discussed in the near future and everybody’s involvement is appreciated. Sincerely Altus Schreuder Chairman: ASA trail running committee SA Team manager: Wales and Poland 082 601 3533 trailrunsa@gmail
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 06:54:48 +0000
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