ASA administrator Ray Mali said the board, which will be led by James Evans from Western Province Athletics, will concentrate on promoting the sport.

"They will promote the sport, the rest is left to me and SASCOC (South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee).

"I will accommodate them in a clean room.

"This is the beginning of great things for athletics in South Africa.

"The people who have been elected in the Board are all capable people.

"Fortunately I worked with James Evans on the interim board and he is a capable administrator.

"I think he will lead the organisation to another level."

Four South African athletes were elected to the Board, which was contested by 58 people.

Blanche Moila from KwaZulu-Natal province was the elected to chair South African cross country.

The same province's Aleck Skhosana will chair South Africa's national road running commission.

Evans was elected South African track and field chair, as well as leading the Board.

Pillay, the 2004 African 100 metres champion and 2006 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, from Gauteng will be the South African athletes' chairman.

Former New York City Marathon winner Hendrick Ramaala (pictured) and Arnaud Malherbe, both from Central Gauteng Athletics, are additional members.

SASCOC, in control of ASA since November last year following the Caster Semenya scandal, called for elections amid pressure by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to hand the sport back to the national federation.

The sport was taken over by SASCOC when former ASA president Leonard Chuene was suspended for, among other things, his role in the controversy over Semneya.

Pillay was in South African headlines after the Citizen newspaper in Johannesburg on Wednesday (September 15) published details from a forensic report compiled by Deloitte which showed she had been injected with Actovigen in 2008, allegedly on the instruction of coach Ekkart Arbeit.

Pillay claimed she thought it was a vitamin injection.

But South Africa's former team doctor Maaki Ramagole has cast doubt on Pillay's claims that she did not know what the substance was.

"She [Geraldine] said it was given to her by Dr Ekkart and she had received it before she came to camp and feels it helps,” Ramagole stated in a letter written to Mali after details of the incident emerged.

Ramagole said she asked Pillay to call Dr Ekkart to come and see her so he could clarify the matter.

She said that both Ekkart and Pillay came back to her and Ekkart explained that it was Actovegin.

Ramagole said she checked the history of Actovegin and expressed her concern as she "did not know how much she [Pillay] took" prior to seeing her and that the fact that it was "banned previously was of concern".

"I am, however, concerned about the inclination by Ms Pillay in interviews that I administered a banned substance to her,” Ramagole wrote.

"She omits to stress the fact that she brought the vials to me.

"She does not indicate who gave her the vials, she omits to explain that it was not the first time she used those injections and she makes it look like I was in possession of those and administered to her under the pretext that it was vitamins."

Richard Stander, ASA assistant administrator, meanwhile, has signed an affidavit at stating that he never leaked a copy of the Deloitte forensic report to the media and has hit out at suggestions by Pillay that he had done so.

"She has discredited the ASA office and for that reason, the election process can be challenged," he said.

"My credibility is above board."


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September 2010: South African athletics hit by doping scandal involving East German coach