Pascalinah Kabi
MASERU — The meeting called to resolve the dispute over international clearances between Lesotho’s top athletes and the sport’s local controlling body on Thursday failed to break the deadlock.
If the standstill continues, six athletes might be forced to forfeit their Soweto Marathon prize monies after running the race without international clearance letters from the Lesotho Athletics Amateur Association (LAAA).
The LAAA refused to grant at least 13 athletes clearance letters for the marathon, insisting it could only do so if runners submitted their personal sponsorship contracts to the association first.
The athletes refused and proceeded to compete in the marathon without the permits.
Lesotho’s Lebenya Nkoka and Mamoroallo Tjoka won the male and female categories of the marathon respectively.
Yet the International Association of Athletics Federation’s Article 4 says: “No athlete or a club may take part in a foreign country without a written approval of the member to which the athlete or club is affiliated.”
The organisers of the Soweto Marathon a fortnight ago said they would only release prize monies if the winners produced their clearance letters.
Besides Nkoka and Tjoka, who are each entitled to a winner’s cheque of M100 000, four other Lesotho athletes are in line for runners-up prize monies.
They have been given up to Friday to produce the international permits or else they forfeit their prize monies.
The Lesotho Sports and Recreation Commission (LSRC) called the Thursday meeting hoping to resolve the impasse between the LAAA and the athletes.
But the meeting had to be rescheduled to December 19 after the warring parties failed to agree.
Top marathon runner Mabuthile Lebopo, who is representing the athletes, refused to disclose any details of the Thursday meeting.
“We agreed that we cannot talk about details of that meeting with the media while we are still dealing with this issue,” he told the Sunday Express.
A source who attended the meeting however said the LSRC had instructed the LAAA and the athletes to resolve their differences before the December 19 meeting.
The athletes were also asked to apologise for participating in the Soweto Marathon without clearances, the source added.