Durban Olympic golden boy Chad le Clos with Richards Bays bronze Olympic medallist Bridgitte Hartley at the Sports and Tourism Exchange gala dinner honouring SA Olympians in Durban.
The success of SA at the Olympics was relived as several of our local sports stars were honoured at a gala dinner for the Sports and Events Tourism Exchange (Sete) conference in Durban on Wednesday night.
A nation’s pride was on show as Durban golden boy Chad le Clos, Richards Bay’s bronze Olympic medallist Brigitte Hartley and Banyana Banyana captain Amanda Dlamini wowed the 500 or so dinner guests at a red-carpet event at the International Convention |Centre (ICC).
While there were many VIP sports administrators, government officials, business and tourism industry leaders around, it was a lovely idea to open up the event to the public.
Unfortunately, the decision was only made a few days before the dinner. Had it been planned well ahead, there would probably have been a larger turnout.
But the organisers can be forgiven with SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) officials and other key players just back from the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The ICC foyer, where pre-dinner drinks were served, was buzzing before the event with local socialites schmoozing with sports stars and other famous faces. Among the guests were Sharks idol JP Pietersen, world-renowned Maritzburg-born cricketer Jonty Rhodes, noted apartheid-era soccer star Sugar Ray Xulu; TV personality Marius Roberts and his beautiful wife and fitness guru, Lisa Raleigh, and Miss SA Melinda Bam.
We also spotted another local Olympian, Tiffany Kruger and former Proteas spin bowler Pat Symcox. Le Clos and family arrived just as all the guests were seated. Chad made a grand entrance into the hall with KZN Economic Development and Tourism MEC Michael Mabuyakhulu.
It was no doubt planned by organisers, but the audience gave him a standing ovation as he entered with visuals of his great win over Michael Phelps projected on screens.
They got to relive one of SA’s greatest sporting victories and celebrations, which continued through the evening with shots of other SA Olympic medal-winning moments.
Durban-born cricket broadcaster Kass Naidoo hosted the evening’s proceedings with entertainment by the Durban Gospel Choir, a “pantsula” dance group and with multi-award-winning vocalist Lira ending off the evening. But, that was not before Naidoo had a QA session with Chad, Dlamini and Hartley on stage about their Olympic experience.
Guests got the opportunity to tweet questions to Naidoo beforehand and all three stars displayed characteristic KwaZulu-Natal modesty in their responses. My question on whether Chad supported a Durban Olympic bid got through and it was an immediate “yes”.
For the ladies out there he confirmed that he was still single.
Dlamini said she hoped the women’s soccer team got more financial support from SA business after qualifying for the Olympics.
Later in the evening a charity auction saw a Mike Tyson-signed boxing glove fetching R8 500, while Chad’s signed swimming trunks went for R5 000.
On the dinner menu was standard ICC fare with a chicken and lamb dish, while the veggie option included basmati rice and curry. The wine was apparently quite “mild”, according to people at my table.
Meanwhile, several speakers including Mabuyakhulu, Logie Naidoo and Sascoc CEO Tubby Reddy started voicing support again for an SA Olympic bid.
I saw ICC boss Julie-May Ellingson chatting to Reddy and would have loved to have heard what they were talking about. Considering Ellingson headed the planning for Durban for the World Cup and building a stadium capable of hosting the Games, that may well have been the topic of their conversation.
