South Africa: Broken Dreams for Team SA's Athletics Squad At World Championships Meet

27 August 2023
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
By Craig Ray and Yanga Sibembe

Disappointment for SA as medals hopefuls bomb out, leaving it up to Botswana, Burkina Faso, Kenya and Ethiopia to bring in the hardware for Africa.

Team South Africa has once again failed to deliver on the track and on the field at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

A team of 36 athletes represented the country, with only a smattering of realistic medal hopes among them.

African 110m hurdles record holder Antonio Alkana, former World Championships finalist Victor Hogan (discus), and former Diamond League meeting winners Zakithi Nene (400m) and Luxolo Adams (200m) all failed to make the finals.

Among a relatively young women's contingent, Commonwealth Games medallist Zeney van der Walt (400m hurdles) and SA record holder Marione Fourie (100m hurdles) were also eliminated before the final.

The likes of the British Virgin Islands, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Peru and the Dominican Republic all won medals.

Waning Wayde

Wayde van Niekerk, the 400m world-record holder, was obviously the best hope, especially as he had posted the leading time of the year: 44.08, set in Poland a month before the World Championships.

After six injury-plagued years, the result of tearing a ligament in a touch rugby match in 2017, the two-time world champion looked as if he might complete a fairytale comeback.

But the 2016 Olympic champion's form waned during the competition. In his first...

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