Whispering brigade still racing up the wrong alley

THE major ball sports tend to hog the limelight across all aspects of the media and in most countries around the world. It is questionable as to whether any of them outperform other popular participation sports in respect of numbers playing the game, but they do, of course, capture the imagination of the public and especially those who are more sedentary in their activities.

Because of this following they also attract the lion’s share of corporate sponsorship.

Each of these sports and most others have running as the very base of the activity and that is where we as runners offer life after as well as conditioning options, which can be exploited

Relationships between sports and the interpersonal relationships in particular are interesting and important to the fabric of society.

Our country has emerged from a horrific period of racism, something that has not been entirely overcome. There is still far too much of a “them and us” mentality which is simply weird given that in the 1970’s roadrunning went through something of a mini transformation of its own – at least competition-wise – and in the 1980’s black and white folk would turn out in large numbers to watch some magnificent performances.

They may not have been able to identify all the athletes, but the likes of Mathews Temane and others were mostly recognisable to athletics followers, if not the general public.

It irritated me then and it disturbs even more now that white members of clubs will not have a clue who the top runners are, most of whom happen to be black.

It irritates me because most black runners know exactly who the top athletes are, black or white.

During the 30-plus years that I have covered the sport locally and nationally I have been severely criticised for not getting too excited about mediocre performances at a club or local level, while waxing lyrical about outstanding running regardless of who the runner was, where they came from or what their background might have been.

Racism in the apartheid years was pretty much in your face, whereas today it is a touch more subtle; people try to smudge it in their conversation. It remains just as reprehensible and when a child is subjected to prejudice, or worse still a child is “used” by an adult, often a “born-free” adult, in comments of a racist nature then we should all despair.

 MDANTSANE’S BIG RUN

In the early 1980’s the first official road race in Mdantsane took place and pronounced a league event.

Through a magnificent marketing campaign a pending Rainbow Nation could be seen running the hills of the sprawling township.

It was a coup for Border and came ahead of races like the Soweto Marathon.

Mdantsane remains a vibrant part of the greater Buffalo City and on Sunday one of the oldest clubs in South Africa, Real Gijimas will be hosting their popular Mdantsane 10km road race.

 WHAT’S IN STORE

According to a Google search the “biggest triathlon store” in the World is 1013m² and is situated in Dallas USA.

Really? Well on Saturday at noon East London’s first triathlon store, Tribal Trading will be opening at The Hub in Beacon Bay and it is 1100m².

That is pretty awesome for our city. The store will cater for the three aspects of triathlon and various derivatives thereof.

TALKING SPORTS

Tomorrow on Wild Coast 98.6fm we’ll have Dispatch Sports Editor, Dominic Peel talking to Peter Gladwin and me.

We’ll see if we can keep him off the topic of Manchester United and their “great” current form.