Recently the TuksAthletics team ended the first leg of the season with a clean sweep in the Varsity Athletics programme and some of the Tuks athletes were selected to represent South Africa at the Commonwealth Games being held in Glasgow, Scotland in July and the African Senior Championships in Marrakesh, Morocco in August.
Since the start of the Varsity Athletics programme two years ago, Tuks have been victorious in all seven meetings.
The track athletes from Tuks were clearly inspired by the support of their home fans as the women claimed four of the five titles and the men walked away with three wins.
Defending champion and current record holder Anneri Ebersohn won her 400m hurdle race in just over 57 seconds, her season’s best time. Anuscha Nice won her 800m race in two minutes and eight seconds. Stella Marais, a 3 000m race favourite, won a tightly contested race as she managed to sprint away from UJ’s Caroline Marandela and TUT’s Thembi Baloyi. Rounding off the evening, the ladies won the 4x100m relay. NWU-Pukke athlete Melissa Hewitt broke Tuks’ full house win when she won her 100m race in 11.72 seconds.
Akani Simbine won his 200m race to beat Kovsies star Gideon Trotter over the finish line in a time of 20.70 seconds, nearly breaking his own record of 20.66. Simbine also finished off the final leg of the 4x100m relay for Tuks to win. Kobus Moolman won the 110m hurdles to defend his title from last year. Rynhardt van Rensburg from Kovsies won the mile race in the last moments to see off Jerry Motsau from NWU-Pukke. Kovsies athlete Wayde van Niekerk won the 400m in a time of 45.37 seconds.
The field events produced mixed results. UJ’s Dewald van Heerden narrowly beat Tuks’ Orazio Cremona in the men’s discus with a throw of 54.98m less than a single centimetre more than Cremona’s 54.05m.
Dwayne Boer from Tuks was unable to beat Boipelo Mothlathlego from Maties in the men’s triple jump, and Kovsies’ JVA Steytler won the high jumping, clearing 2.08m.
The ladies from NWU-Pukke triumphed on the evening with victories in the shot put, javelin and hammer throw events while Patience Ntshingila from UJ won the long jump.
Sport fans can now look forward to the hockey programme which began on 3 May.
Photo: Brad Donald
