Athletics SA (ASA) is planning to host the inaugural athletics awards ceremony to celebrate the athletes before the end of the year.

Athletes’ chairperson Hendrick Mokganyetsi said it was time for athletics to follow in the footsteps of soccer, cricket and rugby by staging its own awards ceremony.

SA's six athletes competed at the FBK Games Hengelo in the Netherlands yesterday; these being: Luxolo Adams (200m), Zakithi Nene (400m), Ruswahl Samaai and Jovan van Vuuren (long jump), Wenda Nel (400m hurdles), and Dominique Scott-Efur (10,000m).

Adams suffered heartbreak as he was unable to finish his 200m race through an injury. He was carried off the track on a stretcher.

Mokganyetsi said he was still waiting for a report from the Dutch about the extent of Adams’s injury. Scott-Efur finished seventh in the 10,000m, which was brilliantly won by Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan with a new  world record. Ethiopian-born Hassan's new mark of 29:06.82 beat Ethiopian Almaz Ayana’s previous mark of 29:17.45 in a face-paced race.

Meanwhile Nene, who ran his first race in Europe, finished fourth in the men’s 400m in 45.87. Seasoned jumper Samaai leaped 8.1m to take second place in the men’s long jump in his first meeting abroad this season.

Nel settled for third place in the women’s 400m hurdles (55:25).

“We are going to host the athletics awards this year come hell or high water. It is time to reward our athletes. We are proud of our athletes that compete in Europe, they made us proud. However, we are worried about Adams; I am still waiting for his medical report,” Mokganyetsi said.