The chances of South Africa fielding a 4x100m relay team at the Rio Olympics appear to be over following their last qualifying attempt in Belgium on Saturday.
Athletics South Africa sent a team comprising of national 100m record holder Akani Simbine, 110m hurdles national champion Antonio Alkana, Tuks athlete Emile Erasmus and Western Province star Roscoe Engel to the Flanders Cup in Kortrijk in a last-gasp attempt to make it to Rio.
They ended up clocking a time of 40.03 on Saturday without any competition as two other local Belgian teams who were set to participate withdrawing on the day.
A full-strength South African team made up of Simbine (personal best of 9.96), SA 100m champion Henricho Bruintjies (9.97), 400m world champion Wayde van Niekerk (9.98) and 2015 world championship bronze medallist in the 200m Anaso Jobodwana (10.10) were considered medal contenders in Brazil.
But due to injuries, scheduling issues and a lack of opportunities to run relays over the last 12 months, the quartet were unable to come together to try and place South Africa among the top eight qualifying times.
The criteria for the relays sees the top eight countries from last year’s World Relays Championship going through automatically to Rio, with another eight fastest averages of two races making up the rest of the field.
South Africa won the gold medal at the African Championships in Durban last month in 38.84, with the next best being a 39.44 set at the World Student Games last year.
That average is unlikely to place them among the top eight qualifiers, but all will be decided next week as Sunday is the last day for teams to set qualifying times.
Long jumper Zarck Visser will also face a worrying wait until next Thursday, when Sascoc announces the final SA team for the Rio Olympics, after he failed to go past the 8.16m qualifying mark at the same meet in Belgium on Saturday.
Visser finished in third position in 7.62m, but despite having already qualified with an outstanding 8.41m jump last year, he is not guaranteed of a place in the squad for Rio.
Ruswahl Samaai (8.38m), Luvo Manyonga (8.30m) and Stefan Brits (8.22m) have all gone past the 8.20m mark this year, while Dylan Cotter also reached 8.16m in February.
There are only three positions available for the long jumpers, so the Athletics South Africa selectors will have to make a tough call between Brits, Visser and Cotter as Samaai and Manyonga are likely to be the favourites for the first two spots.
@IndyCapeSport