NWU-Pukke’s athletes did their utmost but, in the end, they could not stop Tuks’s juggernaut on the University of Pretoria’s home soil in the second and final leg of the 2017 Varsity Athletics competition. Tuks are now the new Varsity Athletics champions, finishing on 31 310 points with Pukke taking second overall on 30 785 points.
This Varsity Athletics meeting was held at the LC de Villiers Stadium on Friday 31 March and the big buzz was about the Tuks sprinters, Gift Leotlela and Thando Roto. Roto had to withdraw due to an injury, however, and that saw Leotlela sprint comfortably to victory in the men’s 100 metre race.
Tuks’s Rikenette Steenkamp was also a force to be reckoned with in the women’s 100 metre hurdles, putting in a time of 13.21.
Pukke’s Letitia Janse van Vuuren also showed her credentials with a 62.37 metre throw in the women’s hammer throw event. Pieter Conradie of Pukke once again took gold with a run of 46.10 in the men’s 400 metre race.