Junior athletes compete in Africa

South Africa's junior athletes have ventured to the northern tip of Africa, with the hope of restoring the image of the sport in this country.

That's after the senior SA team returned from the recent world championships held in Helsinki empty handed.

This group of under 20 athletes may only be taking on the best in the continent and not the world, but this outing will play an important part in Athletics South Africa's (ASA) new strategy to focus more on youth and junior athletes, than those at senior level.

The SA team left for Tunis on Monday night and will compete in the African Junior Championships there from Thursday until Sunday.

Speaking just after the team's departure, ASA general manager Linda Ferns said this is the largest group ever sent to an African Junior Championships.

"It's part of the plan to see where the talent lies and take them through to senior level, because more than likely these are the athletes who will be competing at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing," she said.

"A competition like this is hugely important in that process because a lot of these athletes have never competed internationally before."

"The other thing is that we are trying to get the team to gel together as a unit, so they take that through to senior level.

I think a lot of the seniors' focus in representing their country first and foremost, has been lost. So these championships are part of the bigger picture and plan to instill patriotism in the minds of the kids."

Ferns was loathe to make any predictions on a possible medal count in Tunis. "We don't believe in putting that kind of pressure on the athletes, but obviously we are hoping for medals.

We are competing on our home continent and need to prove ourselves as a force to be reckoned with," she said. "

At last year's African senior championships we finished on top of the medal table so we would like to keep that record and I am confident we can do that."

The team certainly does include several medal hopefuls, including the likes of middle distance stars Isaac Mboyase (1500m) and Bongane Mgemane (800m), 110m hurdler Ruan de Vries, high jumper Anika Smit and thrower Marli Knoetze.

But national javelin champion Lohan Rautenbach, who recently competed in Helsinki, has had to withdraw from the team because of a broken finger, as have top junior 400m hurdler Wouter le Roux (stress fracture) and sprinter Isobel le Roux (exams).

Ferns, added that it was of concern that there were considerably more men than women in the team. "But we are working on that as part of our new development strategy ," she said.