SA's Athens medal challengers
Brad Morgan
13 August 2004
The Athens Olympic Games will bring together the best of the best. There is no bigger event in sport, and there are few things valued more in sport than an Olympic gold medal.
Traditionally, the Games are dominated by powers like the United States and Russia, with China having emerged as a big medal threat in recent years. Germany and France are traditionally strong, while Australia enjoyed a tremendous showing on home soil in 2000.
Yet the Olympics medal table is long and features unlikely winners and medalists. In Sydney they included Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Latvia.
Olympic Team South Africa
Meet the men and women who'll be swimming, cycling, boxing, fencing, rowing, running,
wrestling ... trying for SA at Athens 2004. 
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South Africa won five medals in total in 2000 - silver for Terence Parkin in the 200m breaststroke, silver for Hestrie Cloete in the high jump, bronze for Frantz Kruger in the discus, bronze for Llewellyn Herbert in the 400m hurdles, and bronze for Penny Heyns in the women's breaststroke. Four years later, the country is hoping for a richer haul.
What are the chances of that realistically? Here are my picks, with one or two wild cards thrown in.
Hestrie Cloete: mental strength
South Africa's best hope of a gold medal is also the country's only true female medal threat. The 2003 IAAF female
athlete of the year, Hestrie Cloete, should be a lock for a medal in the high jump. She is also a very strong challenger for gold.
It is the nature of high jump that anything can happen. In such a technical competition, being slightly off song on the day can cost the one or two centimetres that make the difference between a medal and going home empty-handed.
Having said that, however, Cloete has proved herself to be very consistent, not prone to wild swings of form, over the last four years. That is why she is ranked number one in the world.
She has proved her mettle by producing her best in the biggest competitions, twice winning the World Championships, and taking victory in other big events, such as the final of the Golden League series. Cloete has shown she has the physical ability, and that works allied to her mental strength, when winning against the best relies so much on a strong mental approach.
In my book, and according to many others, Hestrie Cloete
is the gold medal favourite for the women's high jump title.
Freitag: just being there a victory
South Africa has a number of medal hopes among its male athletes. One of them is Cloete's fellow world high jump champion, Jacques Freitag. He has a wonderful list of titles to his name, and adding that of Olympic champion would make it a remarkable list.
Freitag has won world titles at youth, junior and senior level, and he is hungry for the biggest one of them all, Olympic gold. However, the fact that he is even in the South African Olympic team is a victory. And it is truly a case of déjà vu.
Last year Freitag had been expected to miss the entire season after blowing out his ankle ligaments in wet conditions in his first European meeting of 2002. Medical advice was that he would need two years to recover. Instead, he somehow managed to shorten that period to just eight months, and in September he won the world title in Paris.
Now,
in 2004, there are eerie echoes of Freitag's 2003 season. His world seemed to have fallen apart in early May when he withdrew from the Olympics due to a serious ankle injury.
Somehow, though, he is again ready to challenge for a major title, named in the South African team after some stirring performances in Europe, including a clearance of 2.34 metres in Salamanca, only two centimetres off Stefan Holm's world leading 2.36 metres.
Freitag credits a team of people for his recovery. Without them, he says, there is no chance that he would be winging his way to Athens. Applied kinesiologist Ron Holder has helped Freitag work on a muscle imbalance that was leading to injuries. Coach Bob Cervenka has helped the world champion change his technique to prevent injury and fully utilise his power. Manager Peet van Zyl has also figured in the mix, along with former middle distance star Fanie van Zijl.
The 2.04 metre (six-foot 10) tall star reckons 2.38 metres should be good for
victory in Athens, and is now confident he can achieve that height. His career best is 2.37 metres, while he won the world championships with a height of 2.36 metres.
It might be a bit of a reach, but I'm tabbing Freitag for a gold medal; there isn't a more talented high jumper in the Olympic field.
Okkert Brits: not done yet
One of the toughest events to call at the Athens Olympics is the men's pole vault. The technical challenge of the event is such that the difference between hitting and missing is miniscule. Also, in the absence of a dominant athlete of the likes of Sergey Bubka, there is no quick pick for victory.
Okkert Brits heads into Athens with a less than stellar record in major championships, but last year in Paris he delivered when it mattered, claiming silver in the World Championships. His last performance in a major event is more pertinent than previous failures, and that is why I'm picking the big Stellenbosch-based
athlete to win a medal.
Although he has competed little in the lead-up to Athens, Brits is the world's top-ranked pole vaulter, and that he achieved through consistency, which is a good indication that he should be in the mix for a medal. I'm picking him for silver or bronze.
Discus, shot putt
Frantz Kruger is an established star in the discus, but he would do well to match his performance in Sydney, which netted him a bronze medal. Lithuania's Virgilijus Alekna is the man to beat, and there are seven other men ranked above Kruger in the world rankings.
But discus is one of those events that can be won by an athlete hitting the jackpot, hitting the one big one that counts, by adopting a hit-or-miss, all-or-nothing approach to the competition.
Hannes Hopley hasn't completed as much as Kruger, and doesn't have as much experience, but his best throw of 2004 is some way better than Kruger's at 67.66 metres. Kruger has the edge in
consistency, but Hopley has shown he has the ability to produce that big one that matters.
Both of these men are threats to medal, but I believe they're on the outside looking in. A medal for either athlete would be a big bonus for the South African team.
Among the field athletes, I would pick shot putter Janus Robberts as a more likely medalist, and I believe he will bring one home if he maintains the form he shown throughout the 2004 season.
He has broken the 21-metre barrier on a number of occasions, and pushed close to it often, and I believe 21 metres will be enough to secure a medal, maybe even challenge for victory.
Christian Cantwell of the USA is the only athlete that has bettered 22 metres this year - something he has managed three times - while John Godina and Adam Nelson have shown good consistency in bettering 21 metres. The only other man to offer anything near that level of consistency is Robberts.
Llewellyn Herbert: a bump
in the road
Llewellyn Herbert appeared a lock for a medal earlier this season. After a slow start to things, he improved race by race in the 400 metres hurdles. Then he pushed world number one Felix Sanchez hard, and appeared ready to make a run at ending the Puerto Rican athlete's stirring run of consecutive victories.
That's when he hit a bump in the road.
Herbert contested the African Athletics Championships, comfortably winning his event in Brazzaville. Shortly thereafter, though, he suffered a big loss in form. He felt flat and weak. The reason for this was a bad reaction to anti-malaria tablets. The type of tablet was subsequently changed, and Herbert says he is confident of being back in tip-top form for Athens.
If the 2000 bronze medal winner is, indeed, back in form, I'm picking him to win another medal. In fact, I would suggest a repeat of his Sydney performance.
Herbert's 400 metres hurdles teammate, Ockert Cilliers, has an outside
shot at a medal. He boasts a fine best of 48.02 this season, but his best form was earlier in the year. Also, he lacks international experience.
800 metres optimism
South Africa has a fine shot at victory in the 800 metres. Mbulaeni Mulaudzi takes his status as world number one into Athens, and he is well backed up by Hezekiel Sepeng, who is ranked fourth in the world.
Mulaudzi has been slowed a little by injury and illness in his preparations for the Olympic Games, but he looks to have worked his way through those setbacks and is again approaching top form.
Sepeng, like Mulaudzi, has had a quiet build-up to Athens, but he cracked the 1:44.00 barrier early in July to show he is on-song for a good run at the Games.
It might take a little co-operation between South Africa's two stars to land a victory, or even a medal for both. At the least, I expect one medal; at best, maybe a one-two!
Probably the most difficult race of
all to call is the marathon. There are so many variables that can affect an athlete's performance on the day. Suffice to say that Ian Syster and Gert Thys have the ability to shock the world, just like Josiah Thugwane did in 1996 when he won gold in Atlanta.
Women's hockey: expect some noise
Away from athletics, I am picking the women's hockey team to make some noise. It would be a massive surprise should they win a medal, but I am picking them to perform far above their world ranking of 13.
In recent times Ros Howell's charges have shown they can compete with any team in the world on any given day. Earlier this year, in February, they also won a four nations tournament in Athens, beating world number two and Olympic champions Australia, world number-six Spain, and the composite Great Britain team. All three of those sides are legitimate title contenders.
It goes to show that the South African team is probably a much better outfit than
the side's world ranking indicates. Remember, Tiger Woods is ranked the number one golfer in the world, but not many people truly believe he is the best at present. In a similar manner, I believe the South African hockey team's world ranking is deceptive, but in this case deceptively low.
In the pool
In the swimming pool, the Arizona University duo of Roland Schoeman and Ryk Neethling spearhead South Africa's challenge, along with Sydney 200 metres breaststroke silver medalist Terence Parkin. Then there is also backstroke ace Gerhard Zandberg to consider.
Schoeman is a sensational sprinter over the 50-metre distance and is ranked second in the world in the freestyle this year. He is also the third-ranked athlete in the butterfly. Over 100 metres, he is second in the freestyle, and twelfth in the butterfly.
Neethling occupies third place in the 100 metres freestyle rankings, and eighth place over 200 metres.
Zandberg boasts the
fastest time in the world in 2004 over the 50 metres backstroke. His time of 25.28 is fractionally faster than world record holder Thomas Rupprath's best of 25.30.
Terence Parkin doesn't feature in the world rankings, but that's really because he hasn't been active against overseas opposition. However, Parkin is a notoriously hard worker who can be relied on to deliver in Athens. The longer the distance, the better it is for him.
So, for my picks, I'm tabbing Schoeman for a medal in one of the sprints, possibly even a gold, while I'm choosing Neethling to lift bronze in the 200m freestyle. Zandberg is my dark horse for a medal in the 50 metres backstroke.
Rowing: unfinished business
I have one final medal pick for Athens: rowers Donovan Cech and Ramon Di Clemente in the men's coxless pairs. They have consistently proved at the World Championships that they are medal contenders.
In 2003 they won bronze at the World Champs, in 2002
they took silver. In 2001 they even won gold. They were also in Sydney in 2000, where they finished sixth, and experience is an important factor in the success of any athlete on the biggest stage of all.
If everything goes well, Cech and Di Clemente will shock the world with a gold medal. If they're less fortunate, a medal of another colour is very possible.
So there you have it. Watch out for South Africa's athletes in Athens. I'm hoping they justify my belief in them, also that I am surprised in one or two instances. I admit I'm am optimist; but that's what the Olympic dream is all about.
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