Ex-athletics boss defends his record

FORMER Athletics SA (ASA) president James Evans has come out fighting to prove he was the good guy on the old divided board. Evans, who is looking to reclaim his old post at the federation's election on Saturday, faced accusations of autocracy and money-grabbing during his tenure, the last year of which was marked by battles with many of his executive members.

But now he has produced documents which, he says, show he was unfairly maligned. For example, board members say a contract he signed with Francois Pienaar's Sports4U marketing company in October 2012 should be declared invalid because Evans concluded the deal without their approval or knowledge.

They claim they learned of the contract only in January last year.

Evans has dismissed their allegations.

To prove his point, he produced an e-mail that he said he sent to all board members on August 11 2012, in which he wrote: "As was mentioned at the last board meeting, we have been in talks with ... Sports4U."

He further detailed how Sports4U would handle sponsorships so ASA could focus solely on athletics.

Evans even asked for comments: "I have attached their draft contract. Please let me know what you think".

In the same e-mail he also wrote that his attempts to stave off a looming cash-flow crisis had gone ignored.

Financial controversy has dogged ASA since then, including honoraria payments, like the monthly R20000 received by Evans, who has always insisted the payments were above board.

ASA's operations all but ground to a halt amid the boardroom fighting last year. The IAAF, the world governing body for athletics, intervened early this year and set up an ad hoc committee to run the federation until the elections.

Evans is one of five presidential candidates, but has also been nominated for vice-president, as chair of the road-running and the track and field commissions, and as an additional member. - David Isaacson