ASA excellence manager Hezekiél Sepeng said the two were consulted in the initial stages, but they indicated their unavailability for various reasons.
Sepeng said Semenya, the newly crowned South African 5 000m and 1 500m champion, and Van Niekerk “give a sense of the depth South Africa have in the relays, in addition to the strong team we have already entered for Japan”. The Commonwealth Games 100m champion said that winning his maiden South African 200m title last weekend also gave him a lift ahead of the 4x100m and 4x200m events in Japan.
Meanwhile, Sepeng cited lack of cooperation from some athletes and coaches as the reason the country was not represented at the previous competitions, which were all staged in the Bahamas.
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