One of the questions in South African sports that need an answer is why female athletes don't get to excel internationally.
It is interesting to note that over the last five years Caster Semenya and Sunette Viljoen are the only ones who were genuinely able to hold their own against the world's best in athletics.
Last year only five South African female athletes got to compete at the World Championships in Doha while there were 22 male athletes in the national team. Dominque Scott in the 5000m was the only female athlete to reach a final.
There is a real chance that even fewer South African female athletes are going to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
One of South Africa's top athletics coaches Werner Prinsloo is intrigued, actually more worried, about this trend in local female athletics. Fully realising that there is no quick fix he has decided that in some small way, he would love to try and play a role in the revival of local women's athletics.
The goal Prinsloo who coaches South Africa's foremost sprinter, Akani Simbine (Tuks-Adidas), set himself is to get a female athlete to qualify in the 400 metres for the 2024 Olympic Games.
It can't be helped to wonder why precisely the 400 metres?
"I always had a fascination for the 400 metres. To me, it is one of the ultimate races on the track. The reality is that genetically in South Africa, we don't have that many pure speed sprinters as in Jamaica. Our sprinters tend to be more inclined to be endurance sprinters hence the 400 metres," explained the Tuks based coach.
Prinsloo is looking for girls between the ages of 17 and 18 who loves a challenge and who are not scared to keep on pushing the boundaries.
"Training for the 400 metres is tough, and it does not get any easier when racing. That is why it takes a special kind of athlete to excel in it. I am looking for absolute commitment. It will take at least two years of intense training before an athlete, whether they might succeed.
"This year is the 10th year that I will be coaching Akani. The first five years were mostly trial and error. We had to find out the hard way what works and whatnot. It is only now in the last five years that he has become a consistent sub-ten-second sprinter. The quest to be faster, however, never stops. Our challenge now in the buildup to the Tokyo Olympics is to Akani to be consistent 9.90s sprinter. That is what makes coaching athletics so exciting."
Prinsloo added that he does not want to be remembered as "a one-hit-wonder coach".
"If I can get at least one female athlete to compete in the 400 metres at the Games, it would be amazing. Who knows I might find a female 200m-athlete in the process which is talented enough to do so. Wouldn't it be great if we have at least three female sprinters at the 2024 Olympics?"
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