'It's important to honour these people while they are still alive' - Tannie Ans & Bra Sponge celebrated at ASA Awards
While giving his speech before calling up the recipients of this year’s Presidential Lifetime achievement Awards, ASA President James Moloi emphasised the importance of celebrating the contributions of those who have given their lives to the sport, while they are still alive. The scores in attendance at the Ballroom in Montecasino on Saturday night (25 January) rose to their feet as Moloi recognized Anna Botha and Michael Seme for their decades of service to athletics.
Known affectionately as Tannie Ans, Botha said that despite coaching for over half a century, she didn’t expect to be honoured in this way. "I'm so blessed and I'm grateful," she said moments after the standing ovation. "I'm so privileged to receive this award after nearly 57 years of coaching. It's also a very big surprise because I never expected this. I'm so fortunate to be able to do what I love and to share the knowledge which I gained over many years to try and help young people to reach their dreams," said the 83-year-old.
Despite her advanced years and years of service, Botha remains active as a coach at the University of The Free State to this day. The Bloemfontein-based coach, will however always be remembered for being the force behind Wayde Van Niekerk, after guiding her 400m specialist to a gold medal and world record at the 2016 Olympics as well as the top of the podium 2015 and 2017 World Championships. She says that remains the standout highlight of her long coaching career.
"By far...you see the first gold medal was in 2015, and then we had to work had for Rio 2016 because we knew we had to work for the record and not only for the medal because there was tough competition. That is moment in one's life that you cherish and Wayde was that very exceptional athlete and it was such a privilege to coach Wayde to the gold medal as well as the World Record in Rio."
Seme, who is known in the athletics community as Bra Sponge, also considers himself fortunate to have been in the game for as long as he has. Having begun coaching in 1977, the Soweto-based has mentored the likes of 800m gold medalist Caster Semenya, 2:06 marathoner Stephen Mokoka, Poppy Mlambo and countless others throughout a career that has seen him produce almost 400 athletes for various SA teams. And like Tannie Ans, he has no plans to retire any time soon.
"A coach doesn't retire because as a coach grows older the wiser he gets. We are able to assess an athlete just by looking at him. My passion is even more now than it was when I started because I'm also coaching coaches these days. The coaches that I train are able to pass their exams with ease. For example Caster and Violet Semenya come from my hands. I'm grateful to all those who have supported me over the years to keep going - especially other coaches because it shows that I've been doing something right. I'm also grateful to all of my athletes who achieved and represented the country."
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