JOHANNESBURG - Throughout 2016, hashtag and athletics nuts would irritate with their #TrackIsBack war cry with every stellar performance both home and away.
Eight years of covering athletics produced more highs than lows as the sport battled to shake the yoke of incompetent leadership.
Sprinkled with the odd highlight, the athletics beat had been a thankless job and a clichéd labour of love.
Where did track return from if they claim it is back?
Track and field has always been there for diehard fans, the one’s that would go to meetings where organisers battled to fill races.
Nothing delights me more than to see South African athletes once again imposing themselves on the international scene.
But for the track to be truly back it would require depth in almost every single event at every meet hosted within South Africa.
With the exception of the recent sprint explosion, the country still battles in other areas with field events receiving a raw deal at the moment.
Athletics SA (ASA) have, in their infinite wisdom, decided to capitalise on the sprinting revolution hosting the local Speed Series.
While showing their ability to think out of the box, they are being short-sighted by almost removing field events from the four-leg series.
The opening leg of the series in Durban doesn’t have a single field event which denies these athletes of valuable competition and robs spectators of the variety that only athletics can offer.
It does’t get much better for the rest of the series with the men’s long jump added to the first and third leg with the women’s long jump and javelin added to the second.
At first glance, it appears ASA decided to add only the field events South Africa managed to qualify athletes for at the Rio Olympic Games.
According to the objectives of their constitution, ASA’s aim is “to establish friendly and loyal co-operation between all members for the benefit of athletics and to promote the best interest of athletes and athletics in South Africa.”
As the custodian of athletics in the country, ASA send out a clear message that they consider some disciplines under their umbrella more important than others.
In which way does the exclusion of shot put, hammer throw, discus, pole vault, and high jump at its premier competitions promote the sport?
Athletics is a truly universal sport where people from all shapes and sizes can excel in the discipline of their choosing.
It is the one sport where one cannot discriminate as times, distance, or height levels the playing field.
ASA's telling athletes that participate in shot put, hammer throw, discus, and high jump that they are not good enough to share a stage with track athletes.
South Africa has a young crop of throwers coming through that have excelled at age-group competitions around the world.
Two of South Africa’s medals from last year’s IAAF World U-20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland came from Johan Grobler and Jo-Ane van Dyk winning silver in the men’s and women’s javelin throw respectively.
South Africa has a host of youngsters waiting to make their breakthrough and follow in the footsteps of Jacques Freitag, Hestrie Cloete, Marius Corbett, Okkert Brits, Sunette Viljoen, and Khotso Mokoena.
A third of the medals South Africa won at world championships since 1997 in Athens came from field events.
We will exclude field events from our athletics meetings to the detriment of the sport.