Bolt among top athletes vying for award, Caster makes home list

The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) announced the nominees for the World Athlete of the Year last week. The shortlist for the men includes the Jamaican sprint king , US 110m hurdler Aries Merritt and Kenyan 800m champion David Rudisha. The women’s section comprises of Paris - British heptathlete Jessica Ennis, New Zealand shot-putter and US sprinter . All three athletes won gold medals at the Olympics. Votes for the nominees were cast from a panel of 2 400 people around the world consisting of IAAF officials, top athletes and selected members of the international press. The winners for the 2012 World Athlete of the Year Awards will be announced on November 24 at a ceremony in Barcelona.

On home soil, South Africa's 2012 Sportswoman of the Year, Caster Semenya, has been nominated for the Athlete of the Year accolade at the annual Gsport Awards. The Gsport awards recognise the performances of sportswomen and coaches of women's sports teams. The Olympic silver medallist in the 800m event has been nominated alongside Olympic canoeing bronze medallist Bridgitte Hartley and national women's hockey captain Marsha Marescia. Over 100 nominations were received across the various categories in a month-long public nominations process. Free public voting began on Wednesday, November 7 on the Gsport website. The Gsport awards ceremony will take place in Johannesburg on November 20.

Former world champion Jacques Freitag was arrested on Friday morning and spent the weekend in police custody according to the Beeld newspaper. Freitag was stopped by Tshwane police after he ran a red traffic light in Bronkhorstspruit and was allegedly found in possession of the drug Cat (methcathinone) in his pocket. Freitag won gold at the World Athletics Championships in Paris, France in 2003. Freitag belongs to an elite class of only eight athletes to win world championships at youth, junior and senior level for an athletic event. Since then, he seems to be on the spot light for the wrong reasons. Freitag was also arrested in 2006 along with his gym partner Zeegfriedt Veenemans after a fight broke out between them and a 17-year-old pupil. A charge of assault against them was dropped after attending a diversion programme.

The Kolonade Retail Park Half Marathon & 10 km race will take place on Saturday 15 November. This is a flat, fast and easy run but be sure to get there early as this is an AGN league race and the start last year had a bottle neck effect due to the big turnout. The race will take place at the Kolonade Retail Park Shopping Centre on Zambezi Drive in Montana.

Menzi Ngcobo

Institute for Sports Research (ISR)

High Performance Centre

University of Pretoria [email protected] /[email protected]