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20:29 10 Feb 12
Former ASA boss Leonard Chuene. backpagepix
ASA blamed for 'drunks'
Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:00
A group of "drunk" individuals caused enough disruption at an
athletes' meeting in Pretoria on Saturday that the organisers were
forced to call it off.
Double Commonwealth bronze medallist sprinter Geraldine Pillay,
who organised the meeting to discuss the poor state of the sport in
the country, said she suspected Athletics South Africa (ASA) of
causing the disruption.
"We could not resolve anything because the meeting was disrupted
by a group of individuals who arrived drunk," Pillay said.
"But we had enough response from the athletes to know that we
should take this forward. We will definitely do this again.
"Unfortunately certain individuals, who are not even athletes or
former athletes, don't seem to care enough about the sport and
misinterpreted what the meeting was about.
Pillay said she had been told that ASA had allegedly mobilised
people to disrupt the meeting.
While others are calling for ASA president Leonard Chuene's head
for his mishandling of the Caster Semenya gender controversy,
Pillay said the meeting had never been about Chuene or Semenya.
"This meeting was not about whether Leonard should stay or go,
and it wasn't about Caster," Pillay said.
"This was supposed to be an open platform for athletes to voice
their concerns about what is happening in the sport.
"Nedbank said it withdrew its sponsorship of road running this
week because of mismanagement at events organised by ASA, and we
can't afford that.
"We are going to appoint an athletes' commission in the interim
to give us a voice, but we will definitely hold this meeting again
soon."