Athletics SA (ASA) acting president John Mathane has said if he finds it difficult to juggle being the body’s interim head and president of Athletics Gauteng North (AGN), he might have to relinquish one of the roles.
Mathane has been appointed acting ASA president after the board suspended the current president, James Moloi, following an investigation into his alleged misuse of a credit card.
And then I’ll be saying how I’m going to juggle the two, but I cannot run the two, a province and a national; somewhere, somehow, I must give [other] people a chance
— John Mathane, Athletics SA acting president
Currently, I’m still in a provincial role; we will discuss the issue of the national when the time is right,” Mathane told the media after the Spar Women’s Challenge 10km Grand Prix series awards in Midrand on Tuesday.
“And then I’ll be saying how I’m going to juggle the two, but I cannot run the two, a province and a national; somewhere, somehow, I must give [other] people a chance.”
Meanwhile, Mathane said the Spar women’s race continues to make an impact by boosting ASA’s aspirations to develop women in road running. “For us to be in partnership with people like Spar, it is very important and crucial because, as ASA, we’re only the administrators,” he said.
“If we administer, we must get the partners to come in to assist. You can see the prize money that they’re providing to the athletes. It’s actually drawing the elites to come and compete among themselves.
“And once they come to compete, it makes life easier for ASA to be in partnership to have more events like this, so people can come and compete, especially for women.”
For winning the Grand Prix, Glenrose Xaba walked away with R515,000, R250,000 for winning every race this year and R300,000 for winning the series.
Xaba, who has now joined Irvette van Zyl and Rene Kalmer in winning the Grand Prix three times, revealed yesterday she won’t be running all the races next year. “I’d love to become the first athlete to win it for the fourth time, but I have bigger goals also. I don’t think I’ll do all of them,” she said.
Sowetan