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ASA bungle meet venue

Johannesburg - A day after it was revealed the federation had awarded R195 000 in prize money to the wrong athletes in a ceremony on Tuesday, the Athletics South Africa (ASA) interim administrators faced further criticism on Thursday for bungling the venue of a meeting in June.

On Monday the federation revealed that five events would be held in South Africa next month to give athletes a chance to qualify for the African Championships and the Commonwealth Games later this year.

One of the events is scheduled to be held in Germiston on June 19 but Maggie Dicks, head of track and field at Central Gauteng Athletics (CGA), said the Herman Immelman Stadium was unavailable next month.

"A rugby club has booked the stadium for the whole season," Dicks said on Thursday.

"Apart from the damage that would be caused to the pitch after an athletics meeting, the rugby club is reluctant to give us use of the stadium because it would involve taking the rugby poles down and various other things which take manpower and cost money."

Dicks said she had tried to organise another venue for the meeting, but with it falling during the period of the Fifa World Cup, nothing is available.

"I tried to get the Boksburg City Stadium but they do not hire out on Saturdays and a soccer club is using the field as well," she said.

"I really tried to find an alternative venue, and I would have loved to host event, but it just won't be possible."

Dicks said ASA had made no effort to confirm if the Germiston stadium was available, and she had only learned that she would be hosting a meeting on June 19 in the press release sent out on Monday.

"They did not even ask for confirmation on whether or not we could host the event," she said.

"I sent an e-mail to ASA on Monday afternoon explaining the problem but I have still not received a reply."

ASA administrator Ray Mali was unavailable for comment due to personal reasons, while assistant administrator Richard Stander was "in a workshop" and also unavailable.

The administrators, in charge of the federation while a forensic audit is completed involving suspended ASA board members and staff, made a tremendous blunder on Tuesday when eight of 16 cheques were awarded to the wrong athletes at the Yellow Pages Series prizegiving.

And while Stander was adamant on Wednesday that ASA had not made a mistake, and was unavailable for comment on Thursday, it is clear that the points awarded to athletes do not match those on the IAAF points scoring table.

It seems the computer programme used by ASA to calculate points has not been updated in line with the international body's table.

According to the website of the company that designed it, the ASA programme was last updated in 2007, whereas the IAAF updated their points table in 2008.

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