Hazekiel Sepeng – SA Sports Awards nomination reflects athletes’ success

The 1996 Olympic 800m silver medallist will contend for the title alongside Tennis South Africa president Gavin Crookes and Cricket South Africa’s Pholetsi Moseki.

While acknowledging ASA’s recent negative publicity and criticism, Sepeng believes the athletes’ consistent success speaks volumes.

"Look, for me it is an honour, it's a big honour, I grew up in an environment where whatever I do must be recognised. As an athlete you win medals then you are recognised, I came into Athletics in 2010 and I found myself in this space now where I deal with athletes and our athletes have been doing very well,” Sepeng said. “It's all those years and the work behind the scenes, people can say what they want to say about ASA but when it comes to performance, athletes are doing well."

READ: Glenrose Xaba credits her stellar year to strong support system

Sepeng, the elder brother of former National Coach of the Year Samuel Sepeng—mentor to Prudence Sekgodiso and Tshepo Tshite—stressed that uplifting the sport is a collective effort. 

He praised his colleagues, coaches, and ASA’s office staff for their vital role in managing logistics, including ensuring athletes travel in and out of the country regularly and without disruption.

"It's not only the office you have people that are behind athletes, you have coaches, you have parents, you have the office. My colleagues that are working under my department, this is the team that has been working to make sure that results are obtained,” he added.

“Training camps, flights, all those things, when the team arrives that side, making sure that athletes got accomodation. We just went to Nigeria, doing our best in things that one cannot control, what happened in Nigeria but at the end of the day, the people walked in and we were pushing."