Nearly half of Olympic qualifying marks demand new SA records

Automatic qualifying standards for the individual track and field events at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics are so tough that almost half of them require South African records.

World Athletics released the standards this week, explaining that the previous target of a 50-50 split of qualifiers through automatic standards versus world rankings had been shifted to 40-60.

They’ve also calculated the standards on what they expect athletes to achieve in 2028 rather than on what they’ve done at past championships.

The upshot for South Africa is that national records are required in 19 of the 40 individual events on offer in Los Angeles — seven men’s and 12 women’s.

Men and women need to beat South African marks in the 1,500m, 5,000m, 10,000m, 3,000m steeplechase, triple jump (the men’s criterion is on the 17.35m national record), decathlon/heptathlon and marathon.

Women also need national records in the 100m, pole vault, shot put, discus and hammer throw.

South Africa is weak in more than these 19 events. For example, the women’s 22.06sec 200m record, comfortably inside the 22.25 qualifying standard, was set by Evette de Klerk in 1989, making it the second-oldest national mark in an Olympic event behind Myrtle Bothma’s 53.74 400m hurdles record from 1986.

The oldest national men’s record is Okkert Brits’ 6.03m in the pole vault from 1995.

Only sprinters like Akani Simbine, Gift Leotlela, Bayanda Walaza, Sinesipho Dambile, Zakithi Nene and Lythe Pillay are performing consistently, apart from a smattering of athletes in other disciplines.

Lack of development

That is good news for South Africa’s relay teams, which landed the men’s 4x100m took Olympic silver in Paris and the men’s 4x400m bronze at the 2025 world championships in Tokyo.

But elsewhere the lack of formal development pipelines in the sport locally is painfully obvious, albeit unsurprising given the boardroom woes at Athletics South Africa, whose free-spending president was recently dismissed. Deputy president John Mathane resigned this week.

Twenty South African athletes achieved automatic standards for Paris 2024, with a further eight winning spots through world rankings.

One of the world ranking qualifiers was Jo-Ané du Plessis, who took javelin silver, South Africa’s only individual Olympic track and field medal since Rio 2016.

While South Africa achieved a record haul of 11 medals at the Youth Olympics in Dakar, which ends today, along with six track-and-field gongs, one should temper expectations

This year just eight athletes produced performances better than the 2028 Olympic qualifying standards — seven men and one woman, or six sprinters, one hurdler and a middle-distance athlete.

The number should grow by 2028. Three women stars achieved qualifying marks in previous seasons — Du Plessis and 400m hurdler Zeney Geldenhuys had injuries this year while 100m hurdler Marioné Fourie, working with a new coach, missed the 12.58 standard by one-hundredth of a second. She holds the 12.49 national record.

Athletes must choose their meets

WA has also changed another element of the qualifying system for the Olympics and the 2027 world championships in Beijing by accepting automatic qualifying standards achieved only at meets rated category C — bronze status — or higher.

Any automatic qualifying marks set at meets with lower categories — like the many league events in Pretoria, Potchefstroom and Cape Town — will not count, although performances there will still earn world rankings points, the Sunday Times has been told.

Athletes will have to plan their seasons carefully.

There are at least six category C-plus meets scheduled in South Africa for 2027, including the national championships. Then there are four more in Botswana as well as others in Zambia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

World Athletics is actively pushing to co-ordinate events across Africa to create something of a continental circuit for local athletes.

Of the South Africans to have achieved 2028 standards this year, three did it in the men’s 100m: Walaza, Leotlela and Simbine. Nations can enter a maximum of three athletes in one event at the Olympics.

Dambile attained it in the 200m while Nene and Pillay showed their class in the men’s 400m.

Veteran 110m hurdler Antonio Alkana matched the 13.18 standard and 24-year-old Mondray Barnard was one-hundredth of a second off.

Prudence Sekgodiso had a quiet season, but she still negotiated the 1min 57.00sec entry mark with a personal best in the women’s 800m.

The Olympic qualifying window for the marathon opened on November 1 and will close April 30, 2028. For the 10,000m, combined events, race walking and relays it opens on December 19 and for the remaining events the window runs from June 19, 2027 to June 18, 2028.

With the International Olympic Committee (IOC) pledging to give every LA28 competitor $10,000 (about R165,000), there will be added incentive to make the team.

On paper the team size could remain the same from four years ago, but expect Team South Africa’s 20-8 qualifier ratio from Paris to change substantially.

While South Africa achieved a record haul of 11 medals at the Youth Olympics in Dakar, which ends today, along with six track-and-field gongs, one should temper expectations.

The country’s six medallists from the first three editions of the under-18 competition in 2010, 2014 and 2018 have yet to convert that to top-level success as seniors.