EVANS MALATULA
Recently, Tuks athletes have shone brightly both locally and internationally. Just when the spotlight was on record-breaking Tuks athlete Caster Semenya, other Tuks athletes proved that there are still plenty more where Semenya came from.
The TuksSport high school golf team won the McCarthy Lexus Super 6 School Tournament which was held at the Waterkloof Golf Club on August 17, 2009. The team became the first to successfully defend this title.
Meanwhile, the TuksGolf team, which was invited to the Swazi Challenge, represented South Africa with distinction in Swaziland. Tuks’s team came second after the Swazi national team, while Tuks’s very own Derick Fick was the overall individual winner.
South African-born long jumper, Karin Mey Melis, won bronze at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin. Even though she represented Turkey at the Championships, she is a Tuks athlete. Melis represented South Africa at the 2005 Summer Universiade and came sixth. She then became a Turkish citizen in June 2008.
South African Olympic medalist, Khotso Mokoena, also a Tuks athlete, and South Africa’s only medalist at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, scooped a silver medal at the IAAF Championships when he jumped 8,47m in the men’s long jump.
Tuks canoeist, Bridgitte Hartley, won South Africa’s first Championship medal on August 15. Hartley claimed bronze in the K1 1000m finals at the World Canoeing Championships held in Canada. Prior to the Canoeing Championships, Hartley had been ranked as the best performing athlete in the recent International Canoe Federation’s World Cup series.
On a low note, AmaTuks have made the worst possible start to the National First Division League. After a very impressive 2008/09 season, the University of Pretoria have lost their first two games of this year’s campaign. Their first game, which was played at the ABSA Tuks Stadium, ended 3-1 in favour of Black Leopards. Amatuks then recorded their second loss in as many weeks when they went down 1-0 to United FC at D. P. de Villiers Stadium (Sasolburg).
