Nombulelo “Constance” Mkenku is being tipped to be South Africa’s next sprint queen. At 18, she is already showing star quality, but this shy Grade 11 learner is just keen to take things in her stride. But it’s hard to stop people from predicting a bright future for her after shesu won silver in the 100m at last year’s All Africa Games in a Personal Best time of 11.27sec.
Nombulelo, who is in Grade 11 at HTS Louis Botha Technical College in Bloemfontein, says she gets her passion for sprinting from her dad, and her dream is to become one of the top runners in the world. While many are keen to see Nombulelo included in the South African Olympic team, she is more realistic about her goals for 2008.
“I’d love to go to the World Junior Games in Poland. I would love to go to the Olympics but I’d only want to do the relay not to compete individually. I went to the World Games last year. I didn’t do so well. It’s now my last as a junior and I am more focused on my juniors.”
One of Nombulelo’s career highlights to date was running alongside her role model, gsport’s February 2008 gSTAR, Geraldine Pillay.
“Running with my role model, Geraldine Pillay last year at the SA Senior Championships was a big highlight. You know when the moment comes you suddenly become shy and you can’t speak but then she was ok. I was very nervous. Competing with her was one of the best things; I never that it would ever happen.”
Nombulelo believes that women’s athletics is stronger this year because there are lots of girls who are hungry, but she urged administrators to back South Africa’s up and coming stars.
“Talk to women, support them, and market them. Men can do what they want easily. People always say men can do better than women and it’s not true.”
To get a clearer perspective of the state of women’s athletics, gsport spoke to Athletics South Africa’s (ASA) development manager, Molatelo Malehopo.
In this wide-ranging interview below, he sheds some light on what ASA is doing to address the state of women’s athletics, what South Africa’s Olympic hopes are, and how Corporate South Africa can get involved in athletics.
Molatelo, what is ASA’s approach to women’s athletics?
At Athletics South Africa, we deal with athletics and women are a basic part of the athletes that we deal with. We try as much as possible as a federation to make sure that we uplift the standards of our women, be it as athletes or officials.
How would you describe the state of women’s athletics in South Africa
If you look at the state, we have got a number of women athletes who have come up the ranks. If you look at some of the successes that ASA has had in the past you will see that women contributed largely to some of the successes.
Obviously we are not at the level where we need to be, but we find comfort in the fact that these women are coming up strongly. Last year at the Youth Championships, we had one gold medal, and that came from a female athlete.
We also went to the All Africa Games and when we got there Nombulelo Mkenku came to the fore as a junior and she won a silver medal in the 100m.
I think these are some of the examples that are giving us hope that we are on the right track. We need to improve the condition of our women athletes. We need to increase the number of women coaches because there is a relation between women athletes and women coaches.
I believe that if we get a lot of women coaches it will be easy for us to take care of our women athletes because women coaches will know, from a perspective of a woman, how to deal with women athletes.
Would a coach be a paid job or a volunteer job?
From the perspective of ASA it is a volunteer job. We are looking at people volunteering to be coaches. Obviously some of the coaches charge fees from athletes simply because the relationship between the athlete and the coach is governed by the two parties. What ASA will do is make opportunities available for training of coaches.
How can prospective coaches find out more about training opportunities?
At ASA we have 17 provinces that are our members and we use those 17 provinces as a vehicle to reach more people on the ground. Each time we have courses, the coaches that attend our courses come through the provinces. Also what has happened which is something that is encouraging is that people are coming to us voluntarily and saying “please can you let me know when there is a course” an we are able to refer them appropriately to the relevant structures.
What else can we do to improve the standard of women’s athletics?
I think what also will help, because when we talk about women, we’re not just talking about women from the urban areas, we are also talking about women from the rural areas where some of them are subjected to harsh conditions because of the state in which the areas are in. We know in South Africa poverty is one of the main issues really affecting our people.
I think it is important from that perspective to look at issues and ask who am I dealing with, what kind of conditions is this athlete coming from, what can I realistically expect from this athlete? I believe in the long run if we are able to have sustainable academy structures where we can take the athletes and put them in an environment that will be conducive for them to develop as capable athletes, I think that will be able to help us greatly.
The realities are that some of the athletes, once they start running and winning, they become bread winners at home and this puts pressure on them and prevents them from focusing on the objectives of running and attaining the highest standards.
You’ll find that through the pressure some of them are being lured into doing road running early in their years and once they start doing road running, they run week in and week out, because they want to win that R200-R250. When they arrive home, their parents might be waiting, or their child knows that once they won that money, they must go back and buy them things.
So as long they’re in that environment I don’t see us succeeding greatly in helping them because they just go for the meager incentives when we could help them to go for the highest prize that is there and then they’re able to sustain their families for good years, and themselves, which is important.
Also what we’re not encouraging is that children should be responsible for their families but it’s not for me to say it, I think its just conditioning. But at ASA we need to focus on athletes and help them achieve the best levels without them being pulled down in social conditions they find themselves in.
Is it the obligation of local provinces to maintain facilities?
When it comes to facilities it should be a partnership. Our selves, as a federation, if we start look at the facilities given, the meager resources that we have, we will never get anyway in terms of developing the sport. But it is important that government, through the national department, through the provincial department, through local government, that we all partner each other and set up facilities that will be able to help in the development of the sport.
We need to set up the facilities but also the facilities need to be maintained so within the three spheres of government, roles need to be clarified so they can play the roles they’re expected to play. When you go to overseas, in some countries, you know that their local government plays a great role in terms of sport activation on the ground by creating facilities and making sure that those facilities are being utilised.
There is one thing creating facilities and there is the other thing making sure that those facilities are being utilised for the right purpose. For us as ASA we feel there needs to be a partnership between the spheres of government and ourselves.
How can Commercial sponsors get involved with ASA?
It is important to welcome the role that is played by Lotto. I feel that Lotto has come to the party and it has played a great role in terms of funding the establishment of facilities. I think that South African corporates, the business people, will have to start to look at the opportunities that are created by sports such as athletics.
If at all nation building is one of their focuses I think they need to come down to our level and help us in terms of our pursuit to get our young people active in sport. One of those things is making sure that we have the necessary facilities and they can make contributions to that.
They can also fund programs, because it’s important that we have programs funded from the junior level to the highest level. There is a lot of opportunities where business people, from a small business person to bigger corporates who have a role to play in terms of rebuilding our communities through sport.
Some of the ills we have in the country, we can deal with them, we can reduce the impact by re-channeling the energies of the youth through sport. Athletics provides that vehicle for us to attain those social objectives.
Who are some of the female athletes with Olympic ambitions?
We’ve got Elizna Naude, Justine Robbesson, Sunette Viljoen. There are quite a number of athletes that we believe have got the pedigree to qualify for the Olympics. That’s why at ASA we have put squads together and we are assisting these athletes by making sure their preparations are sound. We hope at the end of the local season in March that we will be able to announce a provisional team that is made up of a number of top women athletes.
Given some of the training camps we have had, we are starting to see the progress that these athletes are making and we are confident that quite a number of them will be in our team going to Beijing?
What is your advice to young girls keen to take up athletics?
There are a number of elements that make up a good athlete, especially from a female perspective. One of them is that they need to be focused on what they want to achieve, they need to be disciplined, and they need to take their objectives very seriously, it doesn’t help to say “I want to be a good athlete” but you find that you are just saying it and you don’t mean it.
People need to say this is going to be my career path in terms of athletics and this is how hard I am going to work in order to attain this level I have set for myself. As a component, the element of hard work plays a greater role in terms of one achieving their objectives.
There is a big future for those to participate in the sport of athletics. There are great achievements that people at an individual level can have by participating in this sport. I believe that people should be encouraged to get involved in the sport and really see if they can attain the levels they set for themselves.
What are ASA’s Olympic hopes?
As ASA we are looking for success. In what we are doing now, we are looking for success at the Olympic Games. We are looking at our athletes winning medals. It’s my wish that those medals will come from men athletes and from women athletes.
I believe that men and women who will in the team are capable enough to win medals at that particular level. We are hoping to get medals across the gender spectrum and I can tell you our athletes have proved in the past, I mean Elana Meyer did prove that women also can go on the highest stage possible and be able to win medals.
I believe those kinds of examples… like Hestrie Cloete too, will help in terms of making it possible for our women to believe more in themselves and to go out there and really achieve success?
Is ASA looking for an improved performance from the last Olympics?
As a federation we are always looking at improving, that’s why we change our strategies from time to time. We change the way we do things, we focus, and refocus ourselves. The aim is that we want to do better always and its our wish, and I hope this year, we will be able to better the standards that have been achieved before.
You mentioned Lotto, what about Yellow Pages’ impact on athletics?
I think it has made a great impact! If you go around in Athletics circles, you will hear everybody talking about wanting to be part of the Yellow Pages series. We have been inundated with requests in the office from parents, athletes, and coaches who would like to see themselves or their athletes coming to participate at the Yellow Pages events.
As we speak now, Yellow Pages is on everyone’s lips, everybody would like to see themselves as part and parcel of Yellow Pages. Yesterday we have a development clinic in Secunda. It was well attended. I was surprised by the number of people who came to attend the development clinic.
That in itself says that people appreciate the contribution that Yellow Pages is making to the sport. I hope this well serve the purpose of really bringing our people together and building the rainbow nation that we are all striving for?
Who can someone contact at ASA for more information on development?
You can contact Athletics South Africa and we will refer them to appropriate people.
Our address is:
Athletics House
No 3, 11th Avenue
Houghton Estate
2198
Johannesburg
PO Box 2712
Houghton
2041
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +27 11 880 5800
Fax: +27 11 442 3091
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