Development is key for sporting success. All the major players that win medals on a regular at major events like the Olympic Games have well planned out, well refined, well-coordinated, well resourced, targeted development programmes in place. It is rather unfortunate that in most cases and across most sporting codes, we rely on a hit or miss model, whereby we stumble upon talent that was not developed from early years. If we are to be world beaters, that has to change immediately.
One thing that I will most certainly take from this tournament is that we do have talent and this is a great opportunity for us to identify the talent while raw and work on making it world class in a few years. This is a crucial stage for the athletes and the different codes. This is the time for the codes to start identifying potentials and putting in place measures to ensure that they don’t fall through the gaps and get lost to sport. Now is the time for the different sporting codes to strategize, with a plan to have these potential future stars represent the country and win medals at major international events in the next few years.