The stage has been set and Hoërskool Bergvlam is ready to host the 71st Mediclinic Nelspruit Interhigh.
Gates will open at 05:00 and the first event is expected to start at 08:00 after the athletes’ procession, procession of cheerleaders and opening ceremony.

It is going to be a jam-packed day, with the Lowveld’s finest athletes from Bergvlam, Nelspruit, Rob Ferreira, Penryn, Lowveld High, Barberton and Lydenburg meeting at Bergvlam to culminate their hard work into sought-after results.
In attendance will be about 3 000 learners, over 1 000 athletes and scores of spectators.

Sports enthusiasts are in for a treat this year with names like Junior Mondlane, who has a very good chance to break the 100-metre record for boys u/17. At the recent Puk Interhigh, he ran a time of 10,36. Fix your eyes on the track at around 15:00 to witness the action. Will Vuyo Ndlovu smash Lowveld High’s Norbert Ponsammy’s u/19 100-metre record of 10,46? Looking at his time at this year’s Puma School of Speed (10,31) it is well within his reach. This event takes place at 15:05.

A record set in 1987 is also well within the reach of Lowveld High’s Nolwazi Mashaba. At the recent LHS Prestige meet, she broke the long jump record set in 1992 by jumping 6,03 metres. She became only the second junior in South Africa to jump over six metres. The Interhigh record has been sitting on 5,87 for the past 33 years. This event will take place at 10:05.

World number four javelin athlete of NHS, Zander van der Merwe, will be up at 08:40, pursuing the Interhigh record of 65,68 metres.

Click here to be directed to Lowvelder’s Interhigh feature

At the recent Golden League at UJ Stadium, he scored over 1 000 ASA points for his distance of 69,91 metres – currently SA’s longest throw with a 800-gram javelin (boys u/19).
Ashley Erasmus will gun for Shana Scott’s 2018 shot put u/15 record of 12,08 metres. With her recent throw
of 16,01, she certainly is one to watch at 12:40.

Danny de Figueiredo, Sumari van Staden and Chiné Maritz are just some of the host school’s stars to watch.
For Penryn, feast your eyes on Delroy Mudzamiri, Zanele Chavangwane and Joshua Greeff.

Then of course four of the oldest Interhigh records are still up for grabs – the u/19 record of former Lydenburger, Riana Swart (Raath) set in 1979. She ran the 100 metres in 12 seconds, and when she was 15, she ran it in 12,30.

Marna van der Burgh (then De Villiers), a former Barbertonian, still holds the 200-metre u/19 record of 24,8, set in 1975. Marelize Weich, a former Nellie, holds the 400-metre record of 57,40 that was set up in 1979.
A full programme will be on sale on the day.