Lee-anne leads Toti juniors’ assault on Menlo meeting

THIS past weekend saw seven athletes from Amanzimtoti Athletics Club compete at the large 29th annual Menlopark inter-schools athletics meeting in Pretoria for the Pietermaritzburg invitation team.

Some of the top athletics schools in Gauteng compete at this meeting.

In the best-ever performance by the club’s athletes, they achieved five first places, a second place and three third places. Conditions were very warm and windy, and the newly laid grass track was still slow so race times were affected.

Lee-anne Blake once again led the charge by winning both the 800m and 1500m events (despite the disadvantage of altitude) for girls 15. In both races her winning times were the fastest of the day for all age group girls competing, up to girls 19. Her 800m winning time earned her a special award given to athletes whose level of performance exceeded a certain standard on the ABSA points table. She also won the award for the meeting’s best girls’ middle-distance performance. As if that’s not enough, she later anchored the PMB team’s G15 4x100m relay team to a magnificent win with a scintillating last leg performance. This team also won the award for the best girls’ relay performance.

Sesi Mbatha proved that she is making remarkable progress when she won both the G15 200m and 400m events, and also received a special award from organisers for the high standard of her 400m winning time.

Rishen Archary, who has only trained with the club for the last 18 months, continued his upward performance curve when he won the B16 400m event and finished second in the B15 200m event.

Anele Blake, Dwayne Trollip and Roald Bothma also achieved excellent third position finishes in the G17 200m, B19 400m and B17 high jump events.

Lee-anne, Sesi, Rishen and Anele are pupils at Kingsway High, while Dwayne and Roald are Hoerskool Kuswag pupils.