18 in a row and counting is the mantra of NWU-Pukke’s steam-rolling karate machine that once again claimed top honours at the 2017 USSA Karate Championships.

This is a another amazing feat from this talented group of karatekas under the leadership of long serving Sensei Johan van Tonder, who has been part of this successful streak since the first title.

Pukke took home 28 medals (11 gold, 9 silver and 8 bronze) and finished on 59 points. Their closest rivals, NWU Mafikeng claimed second on 17 points and just show the gulf in class and talent at Pukke.

“It is an amazing achievement to win 18 titles in a row. No other sport can come close to this record at tertiary level. It is also an absolute team effort with everyone performing brilliantly,” Van Tonder enthused.

Still, Van Tonder was humble in victory and reckons that this year’s championships were full of good and rising competitions from a couple of institutions.

“The competition was at a higher level than before, but we have also trained harder to keep up to our standards. In the men’s final we went up against Durban University of Technology, who had three Proteas in their squad, but we managed to outwit them to take gold,” said Van Tonder.

Final points table:

NWU Pukke 59 (First)

NWU Mafikeng 17 (Second)

VUT:13 (Third)

UKZN: 12

DUT: 11

TUKS: 9

Walter Sisulu Univ: 8

UJ: 5

Monash: 3

UFS: 3

NMMU: 1