Sport Highlights 6-8 February
This weekend can almost be called the "calm before the storm" concerning sports events as the Super Rugby season kicks off next week. However, there is still something for everyone’s taste to enjoy on the sporting menu this weekend.
While weekends for most people with children are currently occupied by school athletics, there are a few other sporting events that will attract the attention of sports fans.
Athletics
The McCarthy Toyota Half-Marathon takes place this Saturday, 7 February, in the suburb of Rietondale Park in Pretoria’s Moot area. This one lap course is a moderate route offering long, straight, fairly flat stretches. There are relaxing downhill bits and challenging uphill sections.
The finish venue offers food, refreshments and kids entertainment. Walkers are welcome. This is usually one of the biggest and most popular half-marathons in North Gauteng.
Athletes have a choice of three distances to enter for. There is a 21km half marathon, a 10km race and a 5km fun run. The half marathon starts at 06:00 and the 10km will start twenty minutes later at 06:20.
* The SPAR Irene Lantern Race has been South Africa’s most popular 10km night race for the past seven years. Thousands of runners will be turning out on Thursday 12 February 2015 to take part in the race, which follows a moderate course.
The race takes place at the Agricultural Research Council Irene Campus starting promptly at 18:30.
Rugby
Although the first rugby action in Pretoria has already occurred last Monday with TUT’s first game in the Varsity Shield series, rugby lovers can now also look forward to the start of the Varsity Cup tournament, which will begin on Monday February 9.
Most residents of Pretoria will likely stand firmly behind Tuks. The team of Pote Human will have a difficult start in the tournament. Their first game is on Monday at 18:30 against the Shimlas in Bloemfontein. The home team is under new management and their new head coach, former Springbok flyhalf Franco Smith, will definitely expect his team to start the season with a bang.
Cricket
The local Momentum one-day series is beginning to build up to a climax. While the Titans have already qualified for the playoffs in the series, their two games this weekend are going to be crucial to determine where they will play in the semi-finals and/or the finals.
They play against the Warriors on Friday 6 February in Centurion (day/night game starting at 15:00) and with the Eastern Cape side out of the competition and struggling at the bottom of the log, the Titans will certainly hope to obtain a bonus point victory.
Strangely enough, the Titans will at the same time hope that their opponents in Sunday’s final league match, the Dolphins, could manage to beat the Cobras on Friday. This will then enable the Titans to finish first on the log if they can beat the very same Dolphins on Sunday in Durban in a day game, starting at 10:00.
Soccer
After Bafana Bafana failed again in the African Nations Cup soccer tournament, many South Africans lost interest in the tournament.
That interest will certainly reignite this weekend, as the final will be played on Sunday in the Estadio de Bata stadium in Equatorial Guinea. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana are the two countries who eventually got through to the final. South Africans will most likely support the country whose football style they like best.
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