Sascoc aims for 10 gongs

SA sports Confederation and Olympic Committee president Gideon Sam officially backed down yesterday on his medal target of 16 for the 2016 Olympics and revised it to a "minimum of 10".

He was announcing Sascoc's updated Operation Excellence (OpEx) funding programme, in which the number of athletes was slashed from 82 to 60.

Among the biggest casualties is veteran swimmer and multiple Olympic medallist Roland Schoeman. His failure to win a 50m freestyle gong at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this year probably cost him his spot.

The only swimmers on the list are Olympic champions Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh.

Welterweight Tulz Mbenge took South Africa's only Commonwealth Games boxing medal, a bronze. He remains on OpEx. So are Siphiwe Lusizi and Ayabonga Sonjica, who both competed at the 2012 Olympics.

Sascoc also decided that only one of the three Sportswoman of the Year nominees for the SA Sports Awards was good enough - javelin-thrower Sunette Viljoen.

Wrestler Mpho Madi and cyclist Ashleigh Moolman Pasio were not included. The only road cyclist on the list is Louis Meintjies.

Sprinter Anaso Jobodwana, who missed most of the season after undergoing hernia surgery, remains on the list, but only as a recipient of medical support.

The sport with the most athletes on OpEx is rowing, with nine representatives altogether, but that was hardly surprising after South Africa's success at the World Rowing Championships in September.

Two of South Africa's four judoka medallists from the Commonwealth Games - Jacques van Zyl and Siyabulela Mabulu, who both took bronze - cracked the nod.

Sam reiterated that Sascoc wanted to take only a small, but potent team.

He had targeted 12 medals for 2012, and even after Team SA had fallen short with six medals, he announced 16 for 2016.

But his climb-down was not unexpected after saying in Glasgow that he would revise the number from 16 to "10 or 12".

On current form, Team SA is on track to get close to 10, which is South Africa's best Olympic haul, achieved in 1920 and 1952.

Sam had said earlier this year that Sascoc wanted to help Caster Semenya, whose form dipped since the 2012 Olympics, where she took silver in the 800m.

She, too, was not on the list. "We haven't had an engagement from her or her federation [about] what is happening," said Sascoc CEO Tubby Reddy.