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Ken Borland


Chad & Cameron put childhood habits aside in new lives 0

Posted on August 09, 2012 by Ken

Habits that they have had since childhood will now be put aside as South African swimming gold medallists Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh get used to their changed lives after the London Olympic Games.

The pair of Olympic champions returned to Johannesburg early on Thursday morning to a tumultous welcome and tried to make sense of their achievements in a press conference with sports minister Fikile Mbalula that was broadcast live on all three of South Africa’s main television stations.

“I woke up on the plane this morning and was turning on my phone and I had to put my pin number in. That’s when I realised that since the age of 10 I’ve been using 2012 as my pin number. But now that I’ve won gold in the 2012 Olympics, I’ve achieved that goal and, for the first time in 14 years, I’ll have to change my pin!” Van der Burgh, the winner of the 100m breaststroke in a world record time of 48.46 seconds, said.

Le Clos snatched gold in the final stroke of the 200m butterfly from American Michael Phelps, who has retired as the most successful Olympian in history with 18 golds and 22 medals overall, and the 20-year-old from Durban in KwaZulu-Natal said he was still coming to terms with beating his hero.

“It was a very special Olympic Games for me, and the last time I race against Michael Phelps. He is such an inspiration for me and the last time we met before the Olympics, I was asking him for hundreds of photos and his caps and goggles! I’m still a great fan of his and it was the most overwhelming feeling to beat him. It just shows that you should never give up on your dreams, no matter how far behind you are in the race,” Le Clos said.

Both swimmers committed themselves to ensuring South Africa build on their London success and win more medals in the pool at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. Le Clos added a silver medal in the 100m butterfly to lift South Africa to fifth in the table, ahead of aquatics powerhouses such as Australia and Russia.

“Chad and I spoke about it on the flight from London and we have the opportunity to change South African swimming, we really want to take swimming forward. South Africa only has five or six thousand registered swimmers, while Australia and Germany have 150 000 and the USA 300 000. But we still finished in the top five. There’s such a field of talent here, we just need to refine it better, we need to keep this momentum going and not kill it,” Van der Burgh said.

“In 2016, we’ll obviously have targets on our back, which means more responsibility and added pressure for us. But that just makes me excited to get back in the pool and train harder,” Le Clos said.

“There’s a lot of potential for 2016 and the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and we need to keep the momentum going. We have the platform now to build and we’ve changed the way people perceive swimming. We need to keep it going, let’s do this!”

South Africa’s head swim coach, Graham Hill, said he expected more success in 2016.

“We’ve only just begun and in 2016 these two young guys will be well and truly prepared, plus there’s a lot of young talent that wasn’t at these Olympic Games. So it all looks good for the future,” Hill said.

Van der Burgh also brushed off criticism that his mode of swimming the breaststroke included extra illegal “dolphin kicks” under the water.

“Unfortunately I’ve been the victim of some Australian press. I’ve never been disqualified or even warned once in my career and there were six different judges watching me in all my races from the heats to the final. They’re not there for a holiday and I was cleared,” Van der Burgh said.

With hundreds of supporters at the airport just after sunrise to welcome the swimmers home, even though it was a public holiday (Women’s Day) in South Africa, the air was thick with jubilation and Mbalula pledged further government support for swimming.

“We have got to prioritise going into the next Olympics and it begins tomorrow. We cannot plough money where we get no results, but swimming always delivers, even when all else fails. Government has got to come to the party and support young children who want to swim in Gugulethu or Mitchell’s Plain [deprived former apartheid townships].

“The media and public must put pressure on government to invest in sport, so we can compete with Australia and their 20-year sports plan. We did that easily at these Olympics with zero budget,” Mbalula said.

 

Tags:
Category Sport, Swimming

IAAF won’t dictate where Oscar runs – Team SA 0

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Ken

Team South Africa will not be seeking any ruling from the International Amateur Athletics Federation over which legs of the 4x400m relay double-amputee Oscar Pistorius may run at the London Olympics, South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) president Gideon Sam said on Wednesday.
Pistorius, who wears carbon fibre blades and was cleared to compete against able-bodied athletes by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2008, was named in South Africa’s 4x400m relay team last week. There were subsequent reports that the IAAF would not allow Pistorius to run in anything but the first leg of the relay due to concerns over the safety of the other athletes because of his prosthetics.
Sam told Reuters on Wednesday that it would be up to the relay team and coaching staff to decide where Pistorius runs.
“We won’t give in to any outside interference over where Oscar is allowed to run, that would amout to discrimination. The debate over whether he gets an advantage from his blades is over and, like any relay team, be it athletics or swimming, it is now up to the team to decide where he runs,” Sam said.
Pistorius, who failed to meet Sascoc’s stringent qualification criteria for the individual 400m, was named in the 4x400m relay team because he was a member of the team that won silver in the 2011 World Championships and is South Africa’s fastest runner over that distance this year.
“The team ran the qualifying time twice when they won silver in Daegu and Oscar was a part of that team. They are ranked second in the world at the moment, so we are very confident that Oscar must be there at the Olympics.
“Oscar ran a qualifying time in South Africa and has worked very hard in running all over the world, so there’s no reason not to include him,” Sam said.
Sascoc’s qualifying criteria stated that an athlete must run a qualifying time both locally and abroad this year, but Pistorius only reached the 45.30 second threshold once on South African soil. But because he is going to the Olympics anyway as a member of the relay team, he will be allowed to participate in the individual 400m as well.
While Sam denied there had been any pressure from the International Olympic Committee for Pistorius’s historic inclusion in the South African team, the deputy minister of sport, Gert Oosthuizen, confirmed that government had backed the 25-year-old’s selection.
“As part of our drive to normalise society, we want to mainstream disabled people, that is the declared policy of government. We always want them to be able to showcase what they can do and to destigmatise them,” Oosthuizen told Reuters on Wednesday.
Sam also announced on Wednesday that Sascoc would pay incentives to all South African medal-winners at the Olympics.
Gold medals will bring a reward of R400 000 [40 000 euro], silver R200 000 [20 000 euro] and bronze R80 000 [8000 euro].

Tags:
Category Athletics, Sport

Van Zyl upbeat after long journey 0

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Ken

World Championships 400m hurdles bronze medallist LJ van Zyl’s journey to the London Olympics has not been without it’s disappointments and injury heartaches, but the South African is confident 2012 will be his best year yet.
    Van Zyl posted the four fastest times of 2011 but could only win bronze behind Britain’s Dai Greene and Puerto Rican Javier Culson in the Daegu World Championships, while in 2009 he also had the fastest time of the year but was eliminated in the semi-finals.
    But the 26-year-old has also been hampered by injuries, struggling through most of 2007 after winning the Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2006, and he was battling a hamstring strain in Daegu last year.
    “This has been my best year in terms of base work, I started in November and I’m already doing better this year at the same exercises compared to when I broke the South African record last February [47.66],” Van Zyl told Reuters in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
    “The key thing is that I’m injury-free and I’m timing my peaks better. I’ve learnt how to pace myself and get to my peak for the major events.”
    In a country where athletics is hugely popular but has famously under-performed at the Olympics – South Africa has won just one gold medal (Josiah Thugwane in the 1996 marathon) since 1992 – there is plenty of pressure on Van Zyl to turn his undoubted ability into gold when it really matters.
    “There’s a lot of expectation, but I see it as motivation, not pressure,” the softly-spoken Van Zyl said.
    His impending marriage – on September 29, seven weeks after the Olympic 400m hurdles final – to Irvette van Blerk – a top-class South African road runner – is another reason why Van Zyl believes 2012 will be a great year.
    “Irvette is also hoping to qualify for the Olympics and will be running the London Marathon at the end of April. It’s nice that we share the same vision, she’s also preparing for the Olympics and she knows what it takes, she understands the sacrifices,” Van Zyl said.
    The part-time cattle farmer joked that a payout of R200 000 [19 600 euro] he received for breaking the South African record last year had been spent on buying a herd of cows for the customary lobola [dowry] payment grooms make to their bride’s family.
    Van Zyl, who has a personal best time of 47.66 seconds, said competition would be stiff in the Olympic 400m hurdles.
    “The Americans are always good, they’ll have two or three guys in the final, while there’s also Greene and Culson. Basically, everyone in the final has a good chance of doing well.
    “But there’ll definitely be more pressure on Greene in front of his home crowd. Anyway, I’ll just be focusing on my own race and my 10 hurdles,” Van Zyl said.
    The keen off-road biker has also decided to scale back on his races in the build-up to the Olympics.
    “My season is so long and I’ve had too many races before which has led to tired legs. So I’ll be concentrating on training until April and will then compete in the Yellow Pages Series [the domestic South African circuit]. We have three other fine hurdlers in South Africa, so the competition will be good.
    “Training at 1400m above sea-level in Pretoria will also definitely be an advantage when it comes to running in London, and the weather’s much better too!” Van Zyl said.

Tags:
Category Athletics, Sport

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    John 14:20 – “On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”

    All the effort and striving in the world, all the good works and great sacrifices, will not help you to become like Christ unless the presence of the living Christ is to be found in your heart and mind.

    Jesus needs to be the source, and not our own strength, that enables us to grow spiritually in strength, beauty and truth.

    Unless the presence of Christ is a living reality in your heart, you will not be able to reflect his personality in your life.

    You need an intensely personal, more intimate relationship with Christ, in which you allow him to reveal himself through your life.

     

     



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