By Ken Borland

After a difficult 10 months in which Hestrie Cloete stepped away from her glittering career, suffered a miscarriage and went through a messy divorce, the South African high jumper says life is good again.

It says much for Cloete's mental strength that she is already putting such a tumultuous period firmly behind her.

The 26-year-old Cloete is, however, not straining at the leash to return to top-level athletics. She will not defend her 2001 and 2003 World Championship titles in Helsinki next week and insists that any talk of a quick return to competitive athletics is wrong.

'I felt I'd done enough for myself and South Africa for a while'
"I retired in 2004 because I felt I'd done enough for myself and South Africa for a while," Cloete said.

"I needed to sort out my life but I'm settled now. I'm going to be married again by the end of the year and then I want to start a family," she said.

The man who has provided the settling effect is Afrikaans folk pop musician Jurie Els.

Cloete, the 2000 and 2004 Olympic silver medallist, said the prospect of going for gold again in the 2008 Games in Beijing could be the inspiration for a comeback.

She had made it clear before the Athens Olympics that she would be taking time out after the Games to have a child with her then husband, Andries.

'I wish all of them good luck'
"I still want to start a family and that means it will be another two years before I return to training. The only reason to go back to the track would be to win gold at the next Olympics," Cloete said.

Cloete, who hails from the small town of Coligny, 120kms west of Johannesburg, said she was sure the South African team would not miss her in Helsinki, where the World Championships begin on August 6.

"I just know they're going to bring back medals and I wish all of them good luck," she said.

A life of relative obscurity seems to suit Cloete. She never left the dusty railway town of Coligny for the bright city lights that her status as a double world champion and 2003 IAAF World Athlete of the Year might have demanded.

She has often been spotted, invariably casually dressed, popping into a fast-food restaurant to buy the sort of food she likes but that is frowned upon by other serious athletes.

"I am not a city girl, I am a country girl. Coligny only has yield signs and four-way stop streets, no traffic lights, and I like that. I do not like driving in big cities, but when we go to Johannesburg we always have to stop off at a McDonalds," Cloete is quoted as saying on a sponsor's website.

Cloete allegedly smokes a pack of cigarettes a day but has also cultivated a wholesome image based on her deep religious faith. The Commonwealth Games high jump champion says the shock of not making the final at the Seville World Championships in 1999, even though she was the world leader in the event that year, taught her that "If it's God's will, I will win".

The lure of Olympic gold in Beijing might just be enough to rekindle Cloete's own will to return to the highest stage.

Looks like being a good team


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Howzit

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Roland Schoeman broke his second world record in 24 hours to win the 50 metres butterfly final on Monday and become the first South African to capture a world swimming championship.

The 25-year-old thrashed his way down the Montreal pool in a slick 22.96 seconds to shave 0.05 off the world record he set in Sunday's semi-finals and add a world title to his Olympic gold from Athens last year.

"I really didn't expect that," Schoeman said.

"To get under 23 seconds, to be the first person to do that, it's quite phenomenal."

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Keep on trucking Mr Schoe

Hi

The time is drawing closer for me to go back to work and for Josh to go to the childminder..... I am not looking forward to this at all, and it is going to break my heart in a million pieces. I am enjoying Josh sooo much at the moment.

:help: Anycase...I phoned the maid I had back in SA this morning, just to see how she is keeping. She cried most of the conversation and begged me to let her come and look after Josh. She worked for me for over 12 years and I would love for her to come and look after Josh. I'd rather pay her, than pay a childminder.... is this a feasible idea?

Emily is currently employed by a very well off black couple and she is looking after their 3 kiddies. Emily is very unhappy there, partly due to the fact that they pay her less than R1000 a month and also the long hours she has to work. This couple is in London at the moment for 3 weeks and they left the kids with Emliy to look after...they are not even paying her any extra.... I dearly wish to help her.

Any comments?

How do you change a .wma file to an .mp3 file?

Believe that you're special,
through the hurt and the pain,
for sunshine will come, after the rain.
Hold on to your dreams, let them not die
and live not in torment by questioning why?
The answers are somewhere and sometimes unkind,
with so many reasons you will never find.
Be true to yourself, don't be what you're not,
for often you'll find, you're all that you've got.
Don't become battered by games people play
and don't take to heart what others may say.
You've got so much life and so much to give,
go out and enjoy it, go out there and live!
Though heartaches are many and tears they will flow,
the more that you live the more you will grow.
There are many that love you, don't ever forget,
let the past be a lesson, you do not regret.

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small,
uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for GOD to rescue him, and
every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.
Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood
to protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

One day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his
little hut in flames, with smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had
happened, and everything was lost. He was stunned with disbelief,
grief, and anger.

"GOD, how could you do this to me?" he cried.

Early the next day he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was
approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. "How did you know
I was here?" Asked the weary man of his rescuers. "We saw your smoke
signal," they replied.

It's easy to get discouraged when things are going bad, but we
shouldn't lose heart, because GOD is at work in our lives, even in the
midst of pain, and suffering.

Remember that, the next time your "little hut" seems to be burning to
the ground, It just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of GOD.

You May Want To Consider Passing this on, because You Never Know who
Feels Like Their Hut Is On Fire Today.

Man says that seeing is believing, but God says that believing is seeing.