This is going to be a stange week indeed. 3 days, then a holiday, then another day. As I have chosen to take Fridays off, in essence, I need to squeeze 4 days of work in 3, which is better than most people this week. How many of you are going to stretch 1 days worth of work to Thursday.

So what is this holiday on Thursday?

Heritage Day is defined as:

n KwaZulu-Natal, the 24th of September was known as Shaka Day, in commemoration of the Zulu King, Shaka. Shaka was the legendary Zulu King that played an important role in uniting disparate zulu clans into a cohesive nation. Contrary to western discourse Shaka was not a ‘chief‘.

The Public Holidays Bill presented to the Parliament of South Africa at the time did not have the 24th of September included on the list of proposed public holidays. As a result of this exclusion, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), a South African political party with a large Zulu membership, objected to the bill. Parliament and the IFP reached a compromise and the day was given its present title and seen as a day

I wonder how Mr Chuene sleeps at night, after that whole debacle. If you see him on the street, kick him in the shins. Chop.

Ok, so onto something useful, right? Surely I have something useful to show you today.

Fixed Gear Cycling is slowly taking off in South Africa, and for the best local news, you can visit The Daily Fix to catch up on events, etc. But they have a reputation for coming up with some WHACK bikes. Take the following abuse of an amazing Cinelli RAM bar for example:

Cinelli RAM Abuse

Not so cool. Here is something, for me, which is much cooler. it comes from this set of pics, a visit to the Trek area where they customise all the cool sh** but I have always been a fan of raw elements in anything, so this raw carbon frame is the shizzle, for me, personally.

Awesome.

As we near the date for Kona have a click on that link for a revisit of the race I went to last year. Am I sad that I am not going this year? OBVIOUSLY. What an amazing race, and an amazing place, and I had such a vibe on that trip with my family. It changed my life man. Should you spend the next few years trying to get there? OBVIOUSLY. It changes your life, in so many ways! There is something about the place, and getting constant Twitter updates from Luke McKenzie, Terenzo Bozzone et al about their training there is driving me up the wall. Hence my own 8 hour training weekends at the moment.

Big picture, right? You have no idea.

Ok, that’s enough weirdness for one day. Have a great week ahead. Work hard, play hard.

Continue Reading →

I suspected as much, but there are already supposed leaks on our girl being AC/DC, or more politely, a hermaphrodite. I was amazed that newspapers had information before the IAAF had spoken to her, and truth be told, a little apprehensive about the information. So bless Ross Tucker, he had the best information out there.

Find it here.

While you`re at it, read the article on testosterone here.

Let’s hope the rumor mill stops till we can get the right information to her first, so that she can face the world with the right information. This, all, in the week, when she’s on the cover of the Huisgenoot, looking like a lady. Shame.

Continue Reading →

So, we have all heard of this amazing girl, right? She is fresh out of school, and the world has jumped to conclusions that she is indeed, secretly, a man. Her remarkable increased performances this year shout of some sort of substance abuse, surely, to the negative, pessimistic people out there. That is how they justify the fact that they would never go above and beyond.

I feel so bad for her. You have the incompetence of ASA (Athletics South Africa), combined with the sheer uselessness of Julius Malema (who today proclaimed that no white people were there to welcome her back to SA whilst Grant from the 12-3pm show on 5FM was there, and that he was not the only wit ou in attendance) and in the middle is this amazing talent, a fresh, 18 year old talent.

Imagine you were world class, from a remote area, and in your final year at school – someone saw you and took you to get the proper training, rehab, prehab, nutrition etc. I bet in a year, a rough diamond would be shaped into an incredible talent. We see it ALL the time with Kenyan runners, swimmers around the age of 16, and indeed, amazing talents in South African rugby who come up at 18/19 and shine straight from the Platteland.

Now imagine your administrative bodies failed you, a egotistical headline seeker “Polititian” grabbed your glory to headline his own plight, and that every person who asked you a question was not what you did differently in training, but if you could please remove your pants so they can see, for themselves, if you are ACTUALLY a woman.

Ok, Caster looks big on TV. I bet if you stood next to her she would be small. maybe 1.6m in heigh, and under 50kg in weight. She is muscular, yes, but I bet with her hair loose, and something girly to wear, there would be no claims.

But will we see an imagine like this?

I doubt it. She doesn’t seem to care. I don’t blame her at all and I would be hugely suprised (and ASA huge emboerissssssed) if anything more comes of this.

I hope she breaks the 800m, 1500m world records time and time again. That she continuously puts the pessimists at bay and that indeed, we all take her on as someone to be proud of as a South African, of all colors.

Leave race out of it, you bafoons. For a light humor moment though, click this link… here.

Julia Malema…. hahahah!

Continue Reading →

Caster Semenya wins the 800m gold by a country mile

Well, Caster Semenya has delivered South Africa’s first medal in a World Championships since 2005, and becomes only the second women to win a title for SA. Her time: 1:55.45., some 2 seconds ahead of former world record holder Jepkosgei of Kenya, is a new PB, her second in a few weeks.

If you tuned in earlier today, you’ll know about the controversy surrounding Semenya. There will be much more written about this, that is for sure. If you have some time, I’d encourage you to go to this post, and then read the comments at the bottom – such a fantastic range of opinions, from the outright upset at the terrible situation Semenya is in, to thought-provoking questions on the matter, to opinions on what should be done. It’s a great read – thank you for your time and consideration, everyone. I wish I could do more justice to your comments!

The 800m final – an unpleasant affair

The general atmosphere of the race was unpleasant - as Conrad put it in his comments to that last post, there really was not a scenario with a positive outcome in all this, and we saw that tonight.

There was almost nothing in the way of congratulations from rivals, race commentary was stilted and ‘strained’, and there are reports of booing from the German crowd. Among athletics websites, there is a general resentment and anger (people take the sport seriously, they feel this makes a mockery of the event), and it is directed mainly against Athletics South Africa, but also against Caster Semenya (which I don’t believe is fair – the governing body, sure, as mentioned, but not the athlete, for I don’t believe she is wilfully cheating).

Added to this, we’ve now started to see the usual mud-flinging, accusations of racism levelled against officials and athletes, discrimination against entire nations (an ASA official effectively accused Australia, as a nation, of conspiring against Semenya…seriously, on live radio).

There have been multiple denials (two separate officials contradicted each other on the same radio station over here today – one said “no test had been perfomed”, the other confirmed the tests), and the President of the South African Olympic Committee, Gideon Sam, has demanded that the IAAF either release results or stop making “malicious” comments. That’s just to give you the perception of what is happening here in SA, where we have reacted as one might expected when a first gold medal in years is challenged…

Having posted earlier this afternoon that things would get nasty, I expected a few days, but it has not taken very long, and it’s already ugly.

A future world record holder?

But all speculation aside, watching the race, and looking at its numbers, let me throw out a prediction:

Caster Semenya will break the world record of 1:53.28 (Kratochvilova) within the next 12 months, if she continues to improve and train effectively. It could even come this year. All she needs is a pace of 55 through the bell, and another 14 seconds through to 500m, and I believe she’d be able to finish in 1:53 or faster.

To take a race out in 26.9 seconds, then press through the next 200m in 29-odd seconds (to hit 400m in 56.83s), take the third 200m in about 29 seconds, and then still kick off the final 170m the way she did, and put two seconds on opposition over the final 200m – that suggests that 1:55 is a sub-max effort. And she did this looking well capable of speeding up if required. It was, had you not known any of the controversy, a quite astonishing performance.

And I honestly will predict that Kratochvilova’s record will fall. Of course, people said that last year, when Jelimo dominated, and that has not come true, so there are no sure things. But Semenya looks well capable of that record.

This is a soap opera and a situation that has few positive outcomes, not for Semenya, not for those she competes against (who are now racing with such doubt and controversy hanging over them too) and not for people who watch the event and cannot make sense of the politics and denials and confusion.

Based on your comments, I have a few thoughts still to express, but that must wait for another time, so join us then! Oh, and there is other athletics too – Usain Bolt goes for number 2 tomorrow, though I’d be surprised if he breaks 19.30s. Then again, who knows…

this article was written by Ross Tucker at Science of Sport

Continue Reading →