The provincial 2019 athletics championship saw the districts’ top athletes, represent the Lowveld in Secunda with favourable results this past weekend.

More than 100 girls and 80 boys from almost all major Ehlanzeni schools travelled to the Highveld and brought home a staggering 38 gold, 36 silver, 31 bronze medals. As there were more female athletes, it came as no surprise that they brought home the most medals of 63 versus the boys’ 42.

Hoërskool Rob Ferreira sent 55 athletes to this prestigious event, bringing home 41 medals (the most of all schools in the province) of which 12 were gold. Windy conditions favoured speedsters like Junior Mondlane, Nhlanhla Maseko, Nkosana Mpinga, Lebogang Machete and Hope Madonsela.

Nhanhla (boys’ u/19) brought home two golds by running the 100-metre sprints in a breathtaking time of 10,25 seconds. He literally had the crowd on their feet when he ran the 400 metres in 46,75 seconds.

Thapelo Nkuna (boys’ u/17) also won two gold medals in long jump and triple jump, achieving a distance of 6,76 metres and 14,18 metres in the triple jump.
Other gold medallists were Junior Mondlane, Nkosana Mpinga, Lebogang Machete, Xolani Lekhuleni, Hope Madonsela, Zanele Sehohle, Sesana Baloi and Lesedi Dibakoane.

Furthermore, 20 athletes brought home silver medals, and nine bronze. “Bringing home 41 medals from an event that in the early days saw one Rob athlete participate, is a great achievement for us,” said Rob’s athletics organiser, Stefan van der Merwe.
A total of 18 of their athletes have been chosen to represent the province on a national level, and 12 have been chosen to partake in the ASA youth and junior championships 2019.

They say all good things come in threes. This rang true for NHS whose top athletes throughout the season, each brought home a staggering three gold medals. Among the boys was Douw Kruger (boys’ u/17) for his exceptional performance in shot-put (19,38 metres), discus (51,75 metres) and a new NHS record in hammer throw of 38,56 metres. Ashley Erasmus (girls’ u/15) broke an NHS discus record of 37,17 by more than a metre, won gold in the shot-put with a distance of 13,77 metres and took her third gold by throwing a three-kilogram hammer more than 30 metres. Other than these exceptional achievements, Jaytee Boers, Handré van der Merwe, Philip Vogel, Hannes Botha , Zander van der Merwe , Shanese de Clerck and Shana Scott each brought home a gold medal. The school also bagged four silver medals and eight bronze, totalling 26 medals.

When the names of the athletes who will represent the province on a national level, as well as the ASA youth and junior championships 2019 were announced, NHS could tick the names of 15 participants.

Nolwazi Mashaba was the star of Lowveld High by bringing home two gold medals and one silver after achieving a distance of 12,59 metres in the girls’ u/17 triple jump, 5,96 metres in the long jump and time of 12,12 seconds in the 100-metre sprint, narrowly missing out on her third gold medal. Despite achieving his personal best, Banele Muwayi missed out on gold with a heart-rending one centimetre in the boys’ u/17 triple jump. His distance was 6,75 metres.
Spesihle Mashele achieved gold in the u/17 400-metre hurdles, and so did Sinethemba Mhlambu, in the u/15 long jump with her new personal best of 5,26 metres. She also placed second in 200-metre sprints with a time of 26,16 seconds.

As small and young as Curro Nelspruit is, 16 athletes qualified for this event. Curro made history for their school by claiming the first three places in the 100-metre hurdles race for boys’ u/15.

They bagged three gold, four silver and six bronze. Seven of their athletes were elected to represent Mpumalanga at the SA Schools and SA Junior Championships to be held later this month in Port Elizabeth and Paarl.

Hoërskool Lydenburg had nine athletes, with Ruben Britz’ bagging a silver medal in shot-put. Kobus Nel and Theboho Thaesa qualified for the above-mentioned events.

Bergvlam sent five athletes to Secunda and saw Danny de Figueiredo and Sithle Sigudu bag bronze. The latter was also chosen to represent the province.  A more comprehensive story on the SA Schools and SA Junior Championships will follow shortly.

Here is the list of athletes going to SA’s at the publication time of this article

Here is the full results of the boys and girls at Secunda

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