Neil Tovey Talks about South Africa's chances at the Olympics

 

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How do you transition from a school athlete to a professional athlete?

With the Olympics about a month away and the deadline to qualify for the Olympics coming up on the 29th June we take a look at athletics and what it means to athletes and schools. We are privileged to have three time Olympian and TUKS lecturer, LJ van Zyl talking to us about Athletics and opportunities that school kids have at getting recognized, transitioning from school to professional athletics and being able to participate at the Olympics. Together with LJ we have content creator and ex journalist Manfred Seidler who has over 30 years of experience working in Athletics and reporting on sports events including the Olympics over those 30 years. LJ de Villiers did his masters on the difficulties that athletes have transitioning from a school athlete to a professional athlete and here, LJ together with Manfred, identifies these problems and then goes on to talk about other issues that athletes face.

 

Pictures of the Danone Nations Cup in Orlando Stadium 2009 Edition

Thanks to the guys from World of Sport Photography I have been able to put pictures of most of the teams who played in the Danone Nations Cup on my blog. These pictures were taken on Sunday at Orlando Stadium. No matter where the team finished in the log they all had a lot of fun. Below is the final log of the 2009 tournament. These are the kids that you have read about in the newspapers and will see on TV over the next couple of weeks. What they achieved is fantastic but we must all remember that they are just kids and for them the most important thing is to enjoy soccer and have fun. I hope that the pictures show how much fun they had during the tournament because that is really what the tournament is all about and what Zidane stressed in his interviews.

Ranking                Teams

1              South Africa

2              Switzerland

3              Brazil

4              Japan

5              Ukraine

6              Indonesia

7              Morocco

8              Argentina

9              Turkey

10           Germany

11           Portugal

12           Mexico

13           Spain

14           Azerbaijan

15           Czech Republic

16           Chile

17           Canada

18           Russia

19           France

20           Egypt

21           Austria

22           Poland

23           Guatemala

24           South Korea

25           Romania

26           Belguim

27           Italy

28           Ireland

29           Tunisia

30           Colombia

31           Senegal

32           Saudi Arabia

33           Uruguay

34           Bulgaria

35           Netherlands

36           England

37           Algeria

38           China

39           Bangladesh

40           Australia



Fun is the order of the day at the Danone Nations Cup World Final

After a hearty lunch provided by Group Danone, everyone was ready for some serious fun. The young players dropped their serious faces on the pitch, and some of the organisational staff even joined parents in cheering the teams on from the sidelines.

The team from Uruguay brought a group of fans as many as two full soccer teams. And what support they gave their team: cheering, singing

- and even a few vuvuzelas made this group as entertaining to watch as their young counterparts on the pitch.

Edward Bermuyez, coach of the u/12 Uruguay team, was glowing with pride. “I am very happy with the way our team has performed today. We are already in the top 16, and I am sure our loyal supporters contributed to that,” he laughs.

The fun was not restricted to the pitch though. Various activities kept tomorrow’s soccer stars busy while they had some time off from the pitch. The teams learnt to paint clay pots in the Zulu tradition, learned the diski dance, and even the world cup dance, the waka waka - with South Africa’s own imitation Shakira.

There were a lot of laughs as kids from 45 countries learned to do the well-known South African gum boot dance too - some faring better than others. When approached for a comment, a member of the Irish entourage quipped humorously: “Sorry, I don’t speak English.. Only Irish!”

Brazil, Chile, Indonesia, Czech republic, Japan, Spain, Uruguay and Argentina emerged top of their groups. The team from Canada stood out for their excellent team work and good clean game. The South African 2009 team are doing well in the tournament and are unbeaten so far.

One of the two young ladies in the Canadian team was fascinated by the different strengths of each team. “It is really cool to see how one team is stronger in shooting than the other, and that some teams can pass to each other like machines,” she says. “This is an experience I will remember for the rest of my life. Spending time with all these kids from around the world makes me realise how different we are, although we share the same planet.”

Tomorrow looks to be another exciting day at the sporting complex of the University of Pretoria, when the knockout stages will begin based on rankings the players worked hard to achieve today.