Athletes shatter records with great performances
This year's Lowveld High School (LHS) Prestige Athletics event was one for the record books.
The participating schools included Lowveld High School, Barberton High School, Uplands College, Hoërskool Bergvlam, Lydenburg and Penryn College. The conditions were perfect for the participating athletes, with a staggering 20 records broken.
The field was spread evenly and this resulted in stiff competition. The athletes were determined to make their mark in their respective track and field events.
The bar was set for inspiring performances in the high jump, long jump, triple jump, 100 and 400 metre hurdles, girls javelin, girls shot put, girls 200 metres and the boys 400 metre events.
Rasheed Gardee from LHS improved on the 1,71-metre high-jump record set by Nhlanhla Tshabalala from LHS, pushing it up to 1,73. No stranger to sporting excellence, Nolwazi Mashaba bested the long-standing long-jump record of5,43 metres to 6,03 metres in the u/19 girls category.
Banele Muwayi from LHS bettered the u/19 girls triple-jump record of 7,08 metres to 7,24 metres.The hotly contested boys u/17 1 500-metre record, set by Hendrik Mentz of Rob Ferreira in a time of 04:08, remained unbroken, but the competitors looked to be edging closer.
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In the boys u/15 100-metre hurdles, Treasure Ndinisa of Penryn and Samkelo Mahlangu from LHS ran a remarkably tight race. The pair smashed the 19-year-old record of 15 seconds with times of 14,85 and 14,87 seconds respectively.
Vukani Ngwenya of Barberton High and Rasheed Gardee of LHS shaved almost two seconds off the record of 00:59,0 in the boys u/16 400-metre hurdles. The duo recorded times of 00:57,8 and 00:57,7 respectively.
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Chiné Maritz of Hoërskool Bergvlam and Jamie Ann Panter did battle in the girls u/17 javelin event. Chiné bested the 19,7-metre record and launched the javelin 30 metres away. Jamie-Ann of Barberton High proved equal to the task and threw the projectile a further two metres away, setting a record of 32,66 metres in the u/17-girls category.
More records were broken in the girls u/15, u/16 and u/17 shot put as well as the girls u/19 200-metre and the boys u/14 400-metre races. As the proceedings wound down, a number of athletes received awards for their performances on the day.
The junior victrix ludorum was Tlangelani Ndlovu from Penryn, while the senior victrix ludorum went to Sanele Chavangwane from Penryn. In the junior victor ludorum, Samkelo Mahlangu of LHS scooped the award while Rasheed Gardee of LHS was the senior victor ludorum.
