Athletics Central North West (ACNW) had a fantastic Senior Track & Field outing this past weekend in Pretoria gaining a second overall position.
The 2021 edition of SA’s premier athletics event took place at Tuks from 15-17 April with hosts Athletics Gauteng North dominating most of the events, bagging 51 medals including 17 of them gold.
ACNW took 10 gold, 9 silver and 11 bronze for a tally of 30 medals. Boland Athletics took third with 14 medals.
The star performers for ACNW who took gold were Tiaan Kleynhans (110m hurdles – 13.62) and Jo-Ané van Dyk (women’s javelin – 59.47 metres). Both athletes beat their more experienced competition to take the top spot on the podium. Van Dyk beat current Olympic silver medalist, Sunette Viljoen into second place, whilst Kleynhans beat the experienced Antonio Alkana.
Danielle Verster of Gimmies also showed her class taking gold in the women’s 1500 metres race. She not won the race but also achieved her personal best time of 4:20.54. This is a fantastic achievement considering that Verster is still young and he to compete against numerous top athletes in SA.
The brother and sister combo of Marga and Alan Cumming also took gold in the women’s and men hammer throw events, respectively.
Marga won gold with a massive throw of 64.30 metres whilst Cumming took first with an effort of 72.78 metres.
Mpho Links beat former youth world champion, Breyton Poole in the men’s high jump final with a jump of 2.15 metres. It was a tight affair that Links won on countback after both athletes cleared the 2.15 metre mark. Riette Heyns also won the women’s discus throw final with a 55.32m heave.
Mizelle Muller took gold in the women’s u.20 heptathlon event, with Joné Kruger taking gold in the women’s long jump event with a 6.36 metre leap. Karmen Fouché also took silver which is a fantastic achievement for a school athlete.
Zelda Schultz took gold in the women’s 20km walk in a time of 1:41:50. ACNW’s dominance in race walking was exemplified in the sense that all the podiums places were filled with ACNW athletes. Meanri Erasmus took second and Anette Koen came third.
