Athletics Gauteng North (AGN) senior athletes this past weekend emulated their junior colleagues’ achievement of a few weeks ago by also winning the national championship held in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape. 

AGN’s athletes completely dominated Athletics South Africa (ASA) senior championship, which was held at the University of Stellenbosch’s Coetzenburg Athletics Stadium.

The athletes from AGN won more than twice as many medals as their nearest rival, while also collecting almost double the points total of their biggest challenger, Athletics Central Northwest (ACNW).

AGN’s team finished with a total of 525 points, with ASNW on 272. They were followed by Central Gauteng Athletics (CGA) with 247 points in third place. Fourth was Boland Athletics (230) and then followed Athletics Free State (103), Western Province Athletics (98), KwaZulu-Natal Athletics (92), Eastern Province Athletics (47), Athletics Vaal Triangle (27), Athletics Mpumalanga (24), Athletics South Western Districts (12), Limpopo Athletics (3), Athletics Griqualand West (2), Athletics Transkei (1) and Athletics North West North (1). Border Athletics and North West Cape Athletics could not earn any points.

AGN participants won 18 gold, 16 silver and 11 bronze medals for a total of 45 medals during the two days of action in Stellenbosch. Their closest rival, ACNW, was able to take home 24 medals and Boland Athletics’ total was 20.

Although CGA received more points than Boland, they were only able to win 19 medals.

The 2022 World Athletics Points Tables were valid at the championship. According to these tables, 1400 points is the maximum an athlete can earn in an event, but these achievements are usually equivalent to a world record. A score close to 1200 points would be considered world class, while anything over 1000 points could be considered a decent performance at national level.

In this regard, AGN’s Sinesipho Dambile’s excellent performance in the men’s 200m arguably makes him the star of the championship. With his brilliant time of 20.02s, he also qualified for the world championship, which will be held in Budapest, Hungary in September this year.

Tuks athlete Marioné Fourie’s winning time of 12.69s in the women’s 100m hurdles also placed her among the championship’s top performers. This achievement was worth 1191 points. Fourie not only qualified for the world championships in Hungary, but also thoroughly dealt with her young challenger and teammate, Tumi Ramokgopa, who finished second in 13.13s.

In the absence of some top medal candidates, AGN’s Gift Leotlela won the men’s 100m in 10.15s (1153 points). The 34-year-old veteran of AGN, Emile Erasmus, finished fourth in 10.29s.

Marlie Viljoen (AGN) was first to cross the finish line in the women’s 400m final in a time of 51.72s (1138 points), while Tuks student Edmund du Plessis produced his best performance of the season, winning the men’s 800m in 1:46.63 (1125 points). AGN’s Karabo More (4:11.54 and 1115 points) was the champion in the women’s 1500m and Danielle Nolte won the women’s long jump event with a distance of 6.49m (1105 points).

The championship was held in wet and cold weather, which probably explains why only one national record was broken during the two days of action. This record time of 24.59 minutes was achieved in the 5km Race Walk for women by Renate van der Merwe of ACNW.

*Please note this article has been amended

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