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Hestrie quits 'indefinitely'
14/12/2004 08:44 - (SA)
Eduan Roos and Jako Krige, Beeld
Johannesburg - "Tell my supporters they will definitely not see me in action on the athletics track for the next three to four years."
This is what high-jump athlete Hestrie Cloete, 26, said on Monday after she announced earlier that she would be quitting athletics "indefinitely".
The Olympic silver medallist recently lost her firstborn in her 10th week of pregnancy.
"If I feel differently in five or six years' time - or even longer - I can always reconsider my athletics career," she said. "Now it is more important for me to focus on my family and the possibility of a baby."
Professor Tim Noakes, sport scientist at the Institute for Sport Science in Cape Town, said although huge physical demands are made on the bodies of female athletes, these seldom played a role during pregnancy.
"These things happen to many women in the world and are definitely not unique to female athletes. Years of strenuous exercises will not necessary result in a miscarriage.
"And - without saying this is applicable to Hestrie - a miscarriage is not about the strain of sport on the body, but rather about an insufficient diet."
Martin Marx, Cloete's coach, did not want to comment.
- Beeld
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