Following the schools athletics fiasco where the Vhembe district omitted athletes from their provincial list, athletes suffered once more when they were notified at the last minute that they had to board the bus to the national athletics championships in East London.

Three athletes from Louis Trichardt High School in the Vhembe district were selected for the Limpopo team to participate in the national championships. The problem was that they were unaware of this fact until the last minute. According to the athletes, the athletics representatives notified the school on Friday, 15 March, that they had been selected, but they were notified of the arrangements only on the Monday morning. Ms Elsa Kriek, deputy principal at the school, confirmed that the children had been told on Monday morning that they had to board the bus for East London at 12:00. 

“The organisation was really not good. We went home and packed and boarded the bus at 12:00,” said Kofi Apea Adu, U/19 athlete and headboy of the school. “I was a bit disappointed, because I was not mentally ready for the competition since I did not think that I had made the team. But I went and did my best,” Kofi said.

“Kofi, Khuliso and Rendani did not do that badly, considering that they had not trained at all after the provincials at the beginning of March,” Kriek said. 

Kofi was third in the 110m hurdles for boys under 19 at the Limpopo championships. His time there was 14.1s. Another U/19 boys 110m hurdles athlete, Khuliso Muthsembele, came fourth at the provincials in a time of 14.3s. The first four athletes broke the record. Kofi and Khuliso’s times were slower at the SA championships - over 15 seconds. They both made it to the semifinals, where Kofi was fourth in his heat and Khuliso was sixth.

Rendani Ndouvhada, U/17 athlete of the school, said that it was his fourth time that he had gone to the SA championships. He felt hurt by the fact that, at the Vhembe district meeting on 16 February, he was not treated fairly and his appeal was unsuccessful. “At Vhembe they cheated me, when they swopped my name with another athlete’s in the 400mH,” Rendani said. He wasn’t allowed to participate in that event at provincial level in order to compete in the nationals. Fortunately, Rendani competed at provincial level in the 110mH and came third, with a time of 13.69s. This time qualified him for competing at national level, where his time was more than a second slower.

All three athletes, however, lauded the excellent organisation at national level and described their experience there as “great” and “very good”.

Questions had been put to LIMSA (Limpopo Schools Athletics) concerning the poor organisation and late notification of athletes for the SA competition.

The questions on the previous fiasco were posed to the LIMSA secretary on 7 March and comprehensive answers were finally received almost three weeks later, on 25 March. See accompanying article