News24's athlete of the year
2001-12-19 10:19
Johannesburg - Although women's athletics has taken a slump in South Africa in recent years top honours as South Africa's leading athlete of 2001 goes to Hestrie Cloete.
The 23-year-old high jumper and pride of the small town of Coligny in the North Western Province won the gold medal at the 2001 IAAF World Championships in Edmonton, Canada and saved the day for South African track and field.
Athletics South Africa decided against honouring its top athletes for their achievements of the year but Cloete did by far enough to earn the title as South Africa's overall Athlete of the Year.
It is the fourth year in a row that Cloete has stood out as the top female athlete in the country.
With the men it is not so easy because various contenders came to the fore during the year. Two gentle giants of SA and global athletics, stood out amongst the rest. Janus Robberts, a strong shot putter and farmer's son from Levubu in the Northern Province, and discus thrower Frantz Kruger, a medical student at Free State University in Bloemfontein.
They are two of South Africa's best athletes of all time and destined to achieve even greater heights in years to come.
The 22-year-old Robberts, a student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, heads the global shot put list of outdoor and indoor best performances of 2001 while Kruger (28) occupies second spot for the second year running in the discus event.
Both failed at the world championships in Edmonton. Robberts led the athletes into the final round as favourite but due to inexperience, he found the high profile moment as too much and could do no better than finishing 12th.
Kruger, on the other hand, only peaked after the world meeting and had to settle for 8th place and a major setback. In the few weeks after the championships in Canada he managed to defeat both the gold and silver medal winners and his victory in the Goodwill Games in Australia did wonders to restore his confidence.
He ended the year in second place on the world best performance list and swung the balance in his favour to b named South African Male athlete of the year for the second time. Both he and Robberts set new SA, African and Commonwealth records with a number of outstanding performances.
Robberts, who has arrived in South Africa for a four-week holiday, set new SA records in every outing since the beginning of this year and improved the national best from 20.60 to a massive 21.97m when winning the NCAA title in Eugene, Oregon in June. Although he failed in Edmonton, he has a bright future ahead of him and with his tremendous potential should become a threat to the world record in years to come.
Other contenders for the men's crown were Shaun Bownes, at 31 a brilliant high hurdler and fastest in the Commonwealth in 2001, Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, 800m, sixth at the world championships in his first world championship meeting, Alwyn Myburgh, winner of the world student 400m hurdles title, and Johan Botha, winner of the silver medal at the 2001 World Indoor meeting in Lisbon where Bownes was also a medal winner in the men's hurdles over 60 metres.
South African junior and youth athletes also did very well during the year and the following young stars were the cream of the crop:
JUNIORS (athletes of 19 and younger): Men - Jacques Freitag, for the third year the world's number one high jumper with a world-class height of 2.31m to his credit; Runner-up - Marnus Kritznger (400m hurdles; fastest in the world in 2001).
Junior Women - Marizca Gertenbach (also high jump; with 1.90m sixth highest in the world in 2001); Runner up - Zanelle Grobler (national senior 800m champion and second fastest over 1500 metres).
YOUTHS (athletes of 17 and younger in 2001): Men - Marthinus van der Spuy (110m hurdler of Stellenbosch); Runner up - Werner Smit (hammer thrower from Western Province). Both travelled to the IAAF's world youth championships in Hungary with new SA records to their credit. Both won silver medals but Van der Spuy gets the nod because he set new records in each of his three races while Smit just failed to equal or better his best.
Youth Women - Out of three athletes from Central Gauteng, Justine Robbeson (javelin and heptathlon) got the nod. Runner up - Carla Fick (100m hurdles). Both girls also returned home from Hungary with silver medals. The third contender was Lynelle Coetzee (800m in 2 min 03.09 sec) who was only 15 when she ran the fastest time of the year by any youth, and fourth fastest by any junior in the world in 2001. Unfortunately she was not sharp enough at the World meeting and did not get beyond the qualifying round.
Road runners of the Year: Men - Andrew Kelehe, winner of the Comrades marathon; Women - Elana Meyer, who enjoyed success over various distances in different parts of the world.
Team of the Year: The SA men's 4 x 100m relay squad who caused a major upset by winning the silver medal at the world championships in Edmonton. The foursome consisted of Morne Nagel, Corned du Plessis, Lee-Roy Newton and Mathew Quinn.
Coach of the Year: Martin Marx, coach of Hestrie Cloete who was at her very best at the right time.