Despite all the upheavals in South African athletics, the performance of Athletics Gauteng North’s (AGN) athletes indicates that this association’s management is healthy.

This statement was proven again during last week’s annual AGN awards event. Among the many athletes who were ho­noured, the names of some of the country’s biggest stars were identifiable.

Pretoria athletes made a major contribution to South Africa’s performance at the Commonwealth Games and these achievements also reflected at the event where Gauteng North’s best were honoured. Cornel Fredericks (gold in the 400m hurdles), one of South Africa’s stars in Glasgow last year, was also one of the top athletes who received a special award for his achievements from AGN.

Among the other top athletes honoured were names such as LJ van Zyl, Akani Simbine, Orazio Cremona, Wenda Nel and Irvette van Zyl.

Eventually, the top awards for the association’s two best athletes for 2014 went to Caroline Wostmann, the first South African woman to finish in last year’s Comrades marathon, and the versatile long-distance runner, Stephen Mokoka.

It was also worth noting that athletics at club level is very well-managed in the association’s ranks. Some of the largest and most successful road running clubs in the country are members of AGN, while the competition for the best club in terms of track and field athletics in 2014 was also very severe.