Uncertainty over athletics event in Pietermaritzburg

A major athletics event that was scheduled for Pietermaritzburg later this month now hangs in the balance as the Athletics African Championships (AAC) go ahead in Nigeria close to the targeted dates.

Last week, KwaZulu-Natal Athletics (KZNA) told The Witness that they were planning to host a three-day Olympics Games preparation event that was set to draw top South African and Region 5 (SADC) track athletes from Friday, June 18.

The idea of the event came after the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) announced that the AAC, which were supposed to be hosted by Algeria on Saturday, June 5, had been postponed to a later, unconfirmed date.

“Will athletes have sufficient time between June 18 and June 23? If they are going to compete on June 23, you need to be there on June 21 and the travelling logistics have become worse because of Covid-19.” - CAA Southern Region 5 secretary-general, Aleck Skhosana.

KZNA wanted to use the event for local and Region 5 track athletes to qualify or prepare for the Olympics.

However, CAA foiled those plans when they announced at the weekend that Nigeria had agreed to host the AAC from June 23-27.

On Wednesday, CAA Southern Region 5 secretary-general Aleck Skhosana said the announcement by the mother body has definitely complicated things, as now there are a lot of dynamics that they have to consider in terms of hosting the event.

“What I know is that they [KZNA] were going to have a competition that was going to involve Region 5 athletes,” he said.

“It was in our [Region 5] plans to get a country to host the games and unfortunately there was no country that could host because of the pandemic. South Africa is in a better position to co-ordinate the issues of the pandemic.

“There’s still optimism for them to take place but there are these dynamics that we still have to look at.

“One of the dynamics are that the AAC has been scheduled to take place closer to the dates that we had in mind. So, we are looking at all these dynamics to decide what we do.

“Do we have sufficient time? Will athletes have sufficient time between June 18 and June 23? If they are going to compete on June 23, you need to be there on June 21 and the travelling logistics have become worse because of Covid-19.”

This article originally appeared on News24

Photo: News24