UP-Tuks dominate UJ at Varsity Sports

Much to the disappointment of the hosting varsity, the University of Pretoria, UP-Tuks, came out strongly as the overall winners of the second leg of the 2014 Varsity Athletics, dominating from the start and taking home four of the five women’s track events.

In what could almost be described as cool but otherwise perfect weather conditions, the oval track and fields of UJ’s Westdene Stadium saw teams from universities around the country compete for honours during the meet.

The excitement of the women’s track events continued across the 100m, 100m hurdles and the 4x100m relay, with the only women’s track event not taken by UP-Tuks being the 100m sprint which saw NWU-Pukke’s Melissa Hewwit defend her crown to keep the title.

The men’s track events however saw an even spread of titles and records, with a mix of winners across the different universities.

UP-Tuks emerged as winners in the night’s 200m with an easy win by Akani Simbine, finishing with a time of 20.66 and a new record, together with a win for UP-Tuks in the 4x100m relay which saw them crossing the line in a time of 39.52 seconds, this time beating their own record.

The men’s 5 000m came down to a race between two, home favourite Jeromy Andreas of UJ and NWU-Pukke’s Jerry Motsau, it was Motsau who crossed the finish line first.

After a bit of a let down from the track events, the UJ field team finally gave the home crowds a reason to scream as they delivered impressive performances where UJ walked away with two of the titles on offer.

Dewald van Heerden delighted all with a throw of 55.33m to win the men’s discus event and Apelele Rasmeni edged out UP-Tuks’ Dwayne Boer to win the triple jump.

“The next leg of the Varsity Sports Athletics programme will take place at the University of Stellenbosch on 21 April, followed shortly by the fourth and final event at the University of Pretoria on 28 April.