Gauteng North honours athletes who dominate national teams
The composition of three national athletics teams that will soon participate overseas has confirmed the strength of athletics in the Gauteng North region.
The 2018 international athletics season reaches a peak in July with three major events that will soon take place.
Firstly the IAAF World Junior Championships will be hosted in Finland from 10 to15 July.
In the same week, the 2018 Athletics World Cup will be held in London in England from 13 to15 July.
This is followed by a major athletic event for Africa’s best youth athletes when the African Youth Games will be presented in Algiers from 18 to 28 July.
South Africa will send three very strong teams to all three of these meetings to represent the country.
The outstanding feature of South Africa’s teams is, however, the fact that Gauteng North (Pretoria) athletes dominate all three teams.
On the eve of their departure for the various events, Athletics Gauteng North (AGN) honoured its representatives from all three teams last week at a special function.
Several officials of AGN attended the function and it was announced that this governing body will also help various of its athletes with logistical and financial assistance to facilitate their participation on the international arena.
The former Olympic star, Hendrick Mokganyetsi, who acted as master of ceremonies at the function, is currently also the chairman of the Athletes Commission in Gauteng North. He expressed his satisfaction with the fact that today’s athletes are being looked after much better than before.
Mokganyetsi, who is nowadays also involved at the Tshwane University of Technology’s Athletics Club, told Rekord that he and his colleagues at TUT have big plans to expand the sport at this university to great heights. International stars such as Caster Semenya and Henrico Bruintjies have already joined TUT’s athletics team, while the young high jump sensation Christopher Moleya is also involved at the club. All three of them are part of the South African team to compete at the Athletics World Cup in London.
However, Tuks’s athletics club, which yields top athletes in collaboration with the HPC, still delivered most athletes to the senior team.
John Mathane, president of AGN, said during his speech that the world has not only taken note of South Africa’s athletic achievements over the past few years but it would have been difficult for the international community to not notice that great things are happening on the athletics front in Pretoria.
Mathane has praised every athlete and coach, as well as the club administrators in Pretoria, for their dedication and hard work to make this city the powerhouse of athletics development in South Africa.
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