Although it was not quite as good as in the past, Athletics Gauteng North’s (AGN) senior athletes once again reigned supreme at last week’s ASA Senior Track & Field and Combined Events Track & Field Championships in Potchefstroom.

AGN’s athletes won 21 gold, 11 silver and 18 bronze medals at the championship for a total of 50 medals.

Just as was the case at the national junior championship, the AGN athletes with this performance collected almost double the number of medals than their nearest rival, which in this case was Athletics Central North West with 26 medals.

Central Gauteng Athletics finished in third place with 22 medals, followed by Boland Athletics with 19 medals. The rest of the provinces could not achieve double figures.

Although the South African superstar, Olympic champion and world record holder in the 400m, Wayde van Niekerk, stole the spotlight to a large extent at the championship with his world class performance (44.17s) in this item, there were some brilliant performances from Gauteng North athletes.

For example, the 18-year-old schoolboy from Garsfontein High School, Armand van der Walt, raised eyebrows when he showed a clean pair of heels for the senior men in the 200m event. He won the race in a time of 20,50s.

Another local youngster, 21-year-old Prudence Sekgodiso of AGN, achieved a double in the women’s 800m and 1500m. She won these two races in times of 2:03,92m and 04:17,22m respectively.

An old stalwart, Glenrose Xaba, was the winner of the 10km race for women and her winning time was 32:02,13m.

In the 100m hurdles for women, AGN swept clean in the medal battle. The race was won by Marione Fourie (12.98s), while her teammates Chane Kok (13.86s) and Kayla van den Berg (13.91s) won silver and bronze respectively.

Former junior world champion, Zeney van der Walt, successfully defended her title in the 400m hurdles in a winning time of 54.82s, while another local star, Taylon Bieldt (55.82s), won the silver medal.

In the men’s 400m hurdles, local star Sokhwakhana Zazini was too fast for the rest and won in a time of 48.95s. In this event there were also only Gauteng North athletes on the podium, when Constant Pretorius (49.80s) and Le Roux Hamman (50.63s) finished second and third respectively.

Gauteng North also took gold in the women’s high jump, where Michelle Ngozo won with a height of 1.80m, while Danielle Nolte won the long jump with her distance of 6.31m.

Athletes from Gauteng North also performed particularly well during the championship in the pentathlon, heptathlon, and decathlon items.

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