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Ken Borland



SA hockey’s quick demise on Gold Coast does insidious damage 2

Posted on May 16, 2018 by Ken

 

The South African men’s hockey team’s hopes at the Commonwealth Games were quickly extinguished, but apart from scuppering any possibility of them adding to the Proteas squad’s impressive haul of medals, more insidious damage was done to the image of the game as a whole in this country.

South Africa began their campaign with a disappointing 4-2 loss to Scotland, who are not even in the top-20 of the world rankings, and were then hammered 4-0 by Australia and 6-0 by New Zealand. They ended the pool stage with a good 2-0 win over 11th-ranked Canada, but they were still condemned to playing in the wooden-spoon playoff for ninth and 10th place.

A 3-2 defeat at the hands of Wales, ranked 24th in the world, completed a shocking tournament for South Africa.

No-one is questioning the commitment of the team, who are, after all, basically amateurs trying to compete with professionals, but questions have to be asked about the selection of the squad.

Surely for a tournament of the Commonwealth Games’ stature – which attracts plenty of media attention back home – the selectors should fill the team with their most experienced, best players? This was not the case with several seasoned campaigners being left at home as SA hockey tried to ‘build for the future’.

The South African Hockey Association (Saha) like to give plenty of lip about a lack of financial support from Sascoc and corporates, but in this instance they have shot themselves in the foot.

The Commonwealth Games, with its widespread coverage, is the ideal platform – second only to the Olympics in terms of our hockey – for SA hockey to make a statement. Winning a medal, which is not a realistic target in the World Cup later this year, would make the public and potential sponsors and supporters sit up and take notice.

Even our women’s side, which is a top-class outfit, disappointed, only managing to finish sixth thanks to defeats to India and Canada and a draw with Malaysia. Canada and Malaysia are not even ranked in the world top-20, while South Africa are 14th.

It all just showed a lack of strategic thinking by Saha. No doubt the powers that be will say something about the mechanics of preparation for the World Cup being behind the Commonwealth Games failure. But a Commonwealth Games medal – or even a strong run for one – would have been a real fillip for the game back home, engendering far more positive PR than a 10th-place finish in a World Cup that the average South African will be totally oblivious about.

A full-strength South African side would have had a chance to nick a medal on the Gold Coast, something which nobody expects them to do in the World Cup. Now, instead, the public opinion of hockey will once again be of a bunch of no-hopers.

Saha needs to make better decisions to ensure they at least give their under-resourced, struggling national teams some gloss.

https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-citizen-gauteng/20180421/282376925178424

Cameron & Chad win gold … and immense respect 0

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Ken

The Olympic medals around their necks were not all Cameron van der Burgh and Chad le Clos won in 2012.

Winners abound in sport and at the London Olympics there were 590 sportsmen and women who earned gold medals. But none of them could possibly be more charming, good-natured and likeable than the two South African swimmers who won immense respect not only for their performances against the odds, but also for the way in which they conducted themselves.

Swimming is not the easiest sport in which to excel. From a young age, hopefuls have to spend hours, normally around the crack of dawn, training in the water. It’s cold and we all know what else happens in water when people spend hours in it…

Swimming meetings take a long time and only those at the absolute pinnacle of the sport get to make large sums of money out of it. For South Africans, there is the added complication of the sport not being part of the mainstream and our young talent has to put up with sub-standard facilities and financial hardship, or go and train in one of the swimming powerhouses like the United States. Countries like the U.S., China, Australia and Japan boast massive swimming programmes and yet our “underprivileged” South African swimmers can still beat them on the greatest stage.

For Le Clos to win the 200m butterfly, he had to overcome his childhood hero and the greatest Olympic swimmer ever, Michael Phelps.

Van der Burgh had to put the tragic death, just three months earlier, of his friend and competitor Alex Dale Oen, who died of a heart attack aged 26, behind him as he won the 100m breaststroke in a world record time.

Winning Olympic gold does not come easy and Van der Burgh typified the determination required when, as a 16-year-old, he broke his ankle but kept going to gym to keep the rest of his body toned.

Van der Burgh’s younger years were clouded by a mild form of ADD, with his parents pushing him in the direction of sport rather than Ritalin, which dampened his spirit.

Even his preparation for the 2012 Games was disrupted, with coach Dirk Lange moving back to Germany and his local coach also leaving the country unexpectedly. Van der Burgh had to fly to Richard’s Bay for two days a week to work on technical matters with a former coach, Francois Boshoff. And then he flew Lange out for some intensive training just before the Olympics.

Van der Burgh, the first South African-based swimmer to win Olympic gold, was followed to the top of the podium two days later by Le Clos, the 2012 African Swimmer of the Year, coincidentally taking the title from his countryman who had won it the previous three years.

The 20-year-old Le Clos, with his boyish smile and the most supportive of fathers at poolside, was one of the media darlings of the 2012 London Games and was the most Googled South African of the year.

If he can ensure the trappings of celebrity don’t undermine his day job, then Le Clos can begin positioning himself as Phelps’ successor as the King of the Pool. The determination and the brilliant way in which he executed the race-day strategy in beating Phelps in London show Le Clos has what it takes to increase the medal haul from one gold and one silver when Rio 2016 comes around.

http://dailymaverick.co.za/article/2012-12-14-swimming-in-2012-chad-and-cameron-against-all-odds

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    John 13:35 – “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

    “The Christian’s standards are the standards of Christ and, in his entire conduct and disposition, he strives to reflect the image of Christ.

    “Christ fills us with the love that we lack so that we can achieve his purpose with our lives. If we find it difficult to love, … open our lives to his Spirit and allow him to love others through us.” – Solly Ozrovech, A Shelter From The Storm

    His loveliness must be reflected in our lives. Our good deeds must reflect his love.

     



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