VANDERBIJLPARK.- Chris van Niekerk, the South African u/20 discus champion and the All African Games Discus champion has been smashing college records and flying the South African flag high.
Chris hails from Vanderbijlpark, where he attended Hoërskool Transvalia and he was the deputy head boy. He started his freshmen year at High Point University who are based in North Carolina and he has gotten off to a flyer.
Chris didn’t win a full for nothing and quickly stunned the competition by breaking the university’s shot put record with a distance of 17.11m. He was promptly celebrated by the college community and was named “The Panther’s Athlete of the Week” after his first collegiate appearance. The rest of his maiden indoor season went much the same way. He brushed aside the competition in all meetings, capping off a stellar season by being crowned The Big South Indoor Shotput Champion with a throw of 17.39m, which also saw him rewrite the conference record books for the third time.
Most Importantly, Chris takes his academics very seriously and is one of the most academically gifted students to have passed through The Aspire Atlantic Scholarship programme. In his first semester of studying Actuarial Science. Chris scored a GPA of 3.6 out of a possible 4.0 points, which saw him being named to the prestigious Deans’ list.