'We've never had a competition which goes to every single province' - New schools Track and Field Series coming in 2025

After a bitter boardroom battle culminating in the suspension of the South African Schools Athletics (SASA) board in January 2020, Athletics South Africa (ASA) and the body in charge of organising schools athletics have buried the hatchet and are working together in the interest of the sport. In the aftermath of that tense standoff which ended after the current ASA administration took over in 2021, President James Moloi has repeatedly emphasized the importance of developing a monitoring system to track talented school athletes as they age through the system to make sure that they are retained and become world class senior athletes.

Yet one of the most significant challenges facing the sport's mother body is that many of the country's most talented young athletes, especially those in the townships and far-flung rural areas, simply do not have the access to the sort of regular, top tier competition that their more privileged competitors enjoy. And without the stimulation of taking on the best, many end up leaving the sport. That's why today's announcement is so important, because for the first time in the history of South African Schools Athletics, a schools championships bringing together learners from all nine provinces will kickoff in 2025.

Brought to life by ASA's broadcast partner SuperSport, the Track+Field Series will feature U15, U17 and U19 boys and girls from all corners of the country in a knockout series that will see youngster fight it out for the right to be crowned the number one athletics high school in South Africa. While it's not a completely novel idea, it is unique in the sense that similar pre-Covid competitions tended to focus on the big metropolitan areas in Gauteng and the Western Cape, a point which Olympian, former SA sprint champion and Track+Field co-founder Mathew Quinn stressed.

"It's a simple solution. We've never had a competition which goes to every single province and gets every single school involved. In the past it's been if your school can afford to travel to Cape Town then you can get involved. We are taking all those parameters away. We want every school to participate. A township school can take part because we are looking at running events, long jump and shot put. Those are the events we wanna see where we can develop kids," he explained.

But today's launch (25 July, 2024) would not have been possible without the political groundwork done by the Moloi administration to unite the warring bodies. Under the leadership of President Sabata Khumalo who was one of those members suspended four years ago, the new SASA board rejoined ASA as an associate member with Khumalo also serving on the ASA Board. The result has been a more harmonious relationship which resulting in the successful organistion of both the SASA Primary and High School Championships earlier this year. This is what makes Khumalo happy. That this initiative will help to solidify the pathway from school athlete to Olympic champion.

"We are an associate member of ASA and I’m also serving on the ASA Track and Field Commission as well as being a technical official for ASA. So I’m bringing all these things to fit in to the schools because at schools we can’t do it alone. We can only identify talent and then hand it over to ASA for high performance to shape them and make it the best. So schools should not try and take over ASA’s responsibility of high performance and rather focus on talent identification and mass participation," he said.

"Athletics is one of the most popular school sports in South Africa, both from a participation and supporter’s perspective. South Africa has a proud history of producing medals at global events at an age-group level and we believe the Track+Field Series will help in building champions," said SuperSport CEO Rendani Ramovha. Entry is FREE and interested schools are encouraged to get in touch with ASA through SASA or visit trackandfieldza.com for more info. The competition is made up of nine provincial meets taking place between the 25th of January and the 22nd of March, 2025 with the grand finale featuring all nine champions to follow.