Cloete, Freitag deserve all the honour

Paris - South Africa's elite athletes, take a bow. Stand up and be applauded by the nation.

When our new sporting idols Hestrie Cloete, Jacques Freitag and Co return home on Tuesday, they deserve a welcome befitting a victorious Bafana Bafana, Springbok or South Africa cricket team, such was the magnitude of their achievements at the IAAF world championships.

Despite a serious lack of financial support from Athletics South Africa, the country's elite athletes continue to improve and impress on the world stage.

They deserve all the plaudits that come their way.

They brought honour to South Africa at last year's Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, but their crowning glory came in the French capital, where they garnered two gold medals, a silver and two bronzes - the country's best-ever all-round performance at a major international event.

For some obscure reason, the bronze medal won by marathon runners Ian Syster, Hendrick Ramaala and Gert Thys in the men's team competition on Saturday was not included on the official final medals table.

But even without it, South Africa still managed to finish among the world's top six athletics nations, behind such powerhouses as the United States and Russia, but ahead of the likes of Britain, Australia and even hosts France.

Now Cloete and Freitag, who secured a historic high-jump double for their country, men's pole-vault silver medallist Okkert Brits and men's 800m bronze medallist Mbulaeni Mulaudzi must be looked after financially and promoted as icons and role models.

At the moment, they're hardly recognised in their own country, a problem which ASA must address as a matter of urgency.

Use their names and faces to promote the sport, to secure exposure on TV and, consequently, lure sponsors.

Ultimately, the reason why Absa and Engen withdrew most of their backing for South African athletics in recent years was that they did not get the publicity they rightly felt their investment deserved.

Sprinter Sherwin Vries summed up the situation nicely the other day.

"There is all this pressure on us to make finals and win medals, but ASA is killing us at home," he said. "We have a right to complain, because we've got too many meetings too early in the year.

"What can be done? We can move our season back to start in March, instead of January. And we have to do South Africa trials to prove we are good enough to go to the big meetings.

"At the moment, how can we set a nice platform (for the major events later in the year) when we have no winter base?"

What he indirectly said was that the athletes are the most important people in the sport, so ASA should get behind them now.