Athletics South Africa (ASA) will address their controversial new selection criteria for international championships at a two-day coaches symposium in Bloemfontein next week.

 "Over 320 of the country's top coaches and technical officials are expected to attend the symposium which will be the biggest of its kind held in South Africa," ASA said in a statement Tuesday.

"More than 20 lectures will be presented with some of the topics to be discussed being ASA's events calendar for 2011 and the selection process for international competitions."

The national federation, which remains under the control of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), faced a barrage of criticism after changing the qualifying criteria in April this year.

Having been seconded to assist with the federation's technical matters, ASA assisitant administrator Richard Stander, has defended  his decision to enforce a six-week window period in which all athletes must reach the standards in their events for any international championships in a given season.

Athletes and coaches were up in arms, however, with some insisting the criteria was too strict and forced athletes to compete outside their regular seasons, and others complaining they had not been informed of the amendments.

Stander said he believed the criteria would ensure improved performances at international events because athletes would have to prove their fitness in winter, as opposed to qualifying during South Africa's track and field season in summer, which generally falls six months before global championships.

He also made it clear the federation would no longer include "passengers" in their teams.

The selectors faced criticism for the team they named ahead of the World Junior Championships in Moncton, Canada last week.

However, while the new qualifying criteria remains in its infancy, South Africa climbed five places to 16th on the medals table, having finished 21st in Bydgoszcz, Poland two years ago.

That performance fell well short of the sixth-place finish they earned in Grosseto, Italy in 2004, but was nonetheless an improvement and Stander remains confident the benefits of the new criteria will start to show at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi,  India in October.

--sapa--