Why ASA President had to lie

Athletics South Africa (ASA) President, Mr Leonard Chuene, definitely lied to the South African public, to the Minister of Sports and other people of influence regarding his own role in the Caster Semenya debacle, of that there is no doubt. However, I think the focus from now on should be on seeking to understand the reasons why Mr. Chuene needed to lie in the first place. The reality is that Caster was indeed South Africa’s strongest medal hopeful going into the recent Athletics World Championships in Berlin, Caster was going to serve as a platform to redeem ASA’s efforts in creating a world-beating SA team, however poor those efforts have been. Therein lies the core of problem which is that ASA has consistently failed to produce world-beating athletes largely because of lack of forward-planning and a clear talent development strategy. South Africa has produced top athletes in spite of ASA and not because of ASA. The reality is that to be a world leader is athletics, ASA can not afford to rely on disparate efforts of the individual coaches who are able to identify and nurture talent, ASA must find a way of co-ordinating the talent identification process and create a process by which new talent is developed to become competitive at the world stage. With the right leadership at ASA, there;s no reason why SA should not have gold-medal winners over the next few years. However for this to happen there needs to be a great degree of political will to change the way ASA is run as an organization. Otherwise all future ASA Presidents who succeed Mr Chuene may yet repeat the same lies.