Schoenmaker and Simbine are Tuks’s best athletes
Two Olympic stars walked away with the top awards as the University of Pretoria's sportsman and woman of the year during TuksSport's annual awards event last week.
The Olympic gold medallist and world record holder, Tatjana Schoenmaker, is the University of Pretoria’s Sportswoman of the Year.
Last week at the Future Africa Campus, it was also announced that she is Tuks’s Newsmaker of the Year. Akani Simbine is the Sportsman of the Year.
While the 23-year-old Tuks swimmer was still coming to grips with her newfound fame and the magnitude of her achievements, Schoenmaker still relished the small victories.
“I might have reached the pinnacle in sport or swimming, but I still don’t feel like it because I still have to grow so much,” said Schoenmaker.
She believes there are so many technical things she could still work on in her onslaught on the future.
Photo: Reg Caldecott
“There’s so much space for improvement, and I think that’s the amazing part of having those little small goals. It’s not always necessarily achieving that big goal of going to the Olympics, but it’s achieving those small goals that you achieve greatness every single day,” she remarked.
As the spotlight’s glare grows on Schoenmaker, she remains a team player despite swimming being an individual sport. She is quick to credit her Tuks teammates, her coach, Rocco Meiring, and her support system for her success in the pool.
The South African 100m record holder, Akani Simbine, ended the 2021 athletics season as one of the top ten fastest sprinters in the world. A definite highlight was running 9.84s in Hungary in July. It is the second-fastest time ever by an African sprinter.
During the Tokyo Games, Simbine finished fourth in the final running 9.93s, missing out by 0.04s on winning a medal. Simbine admits that was not the result he had sacrificed so much for.
Photo: Reg Caldecott
“But the experience made me a stronger person. I have learned how to deal with adversity. I know now there is more to the story of Akani Simbine being a 100-metre sprinter. I appreciate being blessed with a unique talent. I want to make the most of it. My aim is to be a better athlete and human being so I could be a role model to others,” he commented.
Kaylene Corbett is Tuks’s Student Sports Woman of the Year. She finished fifth in the 200m-breaststroke final.
Another Olympic sprinter, Gift Leotlela, was named Tuks’s Student Sportsman of the Year.
Some other awards are Rocco Meiring (Coach of the Year Individual Sport), Sihle Ntuli (Coach of the Year Team Sport), Phumelela Mbande (Sports Personality of the Year), Tuks Women’s Hockey team (Sports Team of the Year), TuksSwimming (SportsClub of the Year), TuksRugby (Principal’s Award for Outstanding Team Performance).
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