ASA is making an ASS of itself.

WRITTEN BY THE EDITOR ON MARCH 24, 2017. POSTED IN SPORTS

At the Rio Olympics last year, Wayde van Niekerk blew everyone away to win gold in the 400m and set a new world record in the process. A few days later Akani Simbine broke new ground by qualifying for the final of the 100m, where he finished a credible 5th.

South Africa started to realise there was talent for days in SA sprinting, especially when you add current SA 100m champion Heinricho Bruintjies in there. Anaso Jobodwane is another name to throw in the mix, the world 200m bronze medalist is returning from injury and looking to fire in 2017. Then you have the young talents of Thando Roto who has a 9.95 to his name, SA youth record holder Gift Leotlela and Clarence Munyai who ran in the SA 4x100m relay team this past week.

With the SA National Athletics Champs coming up next month in Potchefstroom, there is no wonder the hashtag #FillUpPotch is starting to gather some momentum. But according to Athletics South Africa, they seems to have other ideas.





Junia Stainback, acclaimed sports journalist from eNCA has been on this story, and through a series of tweets he posted this week sums things up brilliantly.

First here's the arsehat ASA President babbling on about how the SA Champs are not important.

WATCH: @AthleticsSA_ President calls SA Championships a "small competition" just one month before the most anticipated National Champs ever! pic.twitter.com/n6AHweCkOa — Junia Stainbank (@mjstainbank) March 23, 2017

What a clown.

I can see what he is trying to say here, that the best in SA must compete against the best in the world. But like most sports administrators in South Africa, his head is too far up his arse to see the big picture.

Yes, it will be cool to send a hugely inexperienced relay team to compete against Bolt's Jamaica, but that's not the big win here.

The big win is all of SA's best sprinting talent making this SA Champs the biggest ever. The big win is getting South Africa to take note of what we have right now in athletics, and feel rightly proud of it. Before I elaborate any further, let's get some thoughts on what is important to the actual athletes on the matter.

Many of SA's biggest track stars decided that they wanna #FillUpPotch a long, long time ago. Olympic finalist, @AkaniSimbine is one of them. pic.twitter.com/Km7hntYOM8 — Junia Stainbank (@mjstainbank) March 24, 2017

That's Akani Simbine, one of the brightest sporting talents in all the land saying this 'small event' means a great deal to him.

Then there is Anaso Jobodwane, another brilliant sprinter who has done his country proud on the world stage so far in his young career. His thoughts on this 'small event'...

And hear why stars like @_ambitious_jay are so damn keen to #FillUpPotch, in spite of the World Relay Champs in the Bahamas. #WATCH pic.twitter.com/0J8E8CHcS6 — Junia Stainbank (@mjstainbank) March 23, 2017

SA's best athletes not competing against each other? Isn't that what the SA Champs should be all about?

Should the ASA not be working tirelessly to make sure this is a great stand alone event without any scheduling issues?

It doesn't appear to be the case sadly. The IAAF had the World Relay Champs on the schedule a long time ago, so it's not like they just suddenly threw it together as they were keen to head to the Bahamas. So why did ASA schedule the SA Champs on the same weekend as the World Relay Champs?

Junia Steinbank pushed for an answer on this from the ASA, but he said he couldn't get a direct answer on the matter.

Sounds like the usual small minded incompetence from the powers that be, but enough about them. Like I said at the top of this piece, SA athletics is something to be really excited about right now.

#FillUpPotch

Enricho Bruinjies, the defending SA 100m men's title holder. This guy has been tweeting about #FillUpPotch like he has a stake on the gate reciepts.

This means the world to him, and so it should. Athletes in South Africa don't exactly have an easy run of things financially. Sponsorships are hard to come by, so shining at the National Champs is a way they can attract some corporate/brand support.

The ASA-hole president of course doesn't care about such a thing. Probably completely unaware of such an important reality.

How are young talents like Gift Leotlela, Clarence Munyai, Thando Roto going to become known to corporate SA if they aren't getting the chance to shine at a big national event like the SA Champs? Will going to the Bahamas and being thrown into a team event get them the exposure they need? Hardly, the chances of getting TV aren't exactly guaranteed, and what sort of press will they receive around the event?

Getting back to the big win, the SA Champs is the only thing worth worrying about on the 21st and 22nd of April.

#FillUpPotch

So we have mentioned Simbine, Jobodwane, Bruintjies and the others are all dead keen to #FillUpPotch and make the 2017 South African Championships perhaps the biggest one in history. Plus there is this guy.

So like I'll be doing the 100 and 200 meters at South African Champions. I hope your ready for this 🙌 — Wayde van Niekerk (@WaydeDreamer) March 23, 2017

400m World Record Holder Wayde van Niekerk in the big sprints! Wow this is going to be quite a thing.

So big, these guys have all been giving each other a rev on Twitter about the big event.

While Simbine and Bruintjies trolled each other over the 100m title, young gun Gift Letlela thought he would also get in on the trash talk.

Leotlela then set his focus on Wayde van Niekerk. Making it personal by including his girlfriend!

Leotlela pushed on a bit more from there, but he really shouldn't have...

This has been some of the best sports banter ever on Twitter. On these tweets alone we must #FillUpPotch

Oh and finally, you know who will also be at the SA Champs? Another Olympic gold medalist. 2 time!

South Africa's incredible athletic talent deserves better administrators, not just some clowns that want a free holiday to the Bahamas.

They also deserve your support, so if you are in the greater geographical area of the SA Champs on 20-21 April - #FillUpPotch

Tags: sa athletics champs, filluppotch, akani simbine, athletics south africa, wayde van niekerk, asa