This year’s South African school’s sports national champions commenced in earnest yesterday (December12) as teams from all the nine provinces converged to the University of Free State in Mangaung where the games  will be taking place.

This comes after the deputy minister of Sports and Recreation, Gert Oosthuizen officially opened the games which will see athletes taking part in 12 sporting codes.

The championships are expected to continue until December 15.

Speaking ahead of the first leg of the sporting competition Oostehuizen said it was fantastic to be at the event because of the fact that the games were established last year and as a result the number of participants including officials had risen to 9 000 and that the sporting codes had been increased compared to eight last year.

He added that this is a clear indication that the sport and recreation plan adopted during the national sport Indaba is taking effect.

“We can claim that what we have been doing is working  and is bearing fruit because this had been proven by the fact that  parents, children and officials are taking time to hone the skills of the future sporting stars.

Oostehuizen said that the number of participants that will receive bursaries will increase to 30 and this is in a bid to showcase government support.

“We will not stop until we unearthed every sporting talent in the country to enable our country to play competitively in the sporting arena,” he concluded.