The saying goes that two heads are better than one, and a strategic sport partnership between the North-West University’s (NWU’s) campuses in Potchefstroom and Vanderbijlpark bears testament to this.

In order to ensure a competitive advantage the two campuses joined forces to share resources and expertise in preparing their hammer throwers for national and international competitions. Judged by the results the collaboration, spearheaded by Basie Koen and his charges, is making inroads.

During the 2017 season, Letitia Janse van Vuuren set a new South African hammer throw record with a throw of 63,82 m. After dominating the local rankings in 2017, Tshepang Makhete recently got the nod to participate in the Commonwealth Games in Australia.  Tshepang and Letitia also made the SA Students Team which participated in the Student World Games in Taiwan.  During the SA Senior Championships, Tshepang finished second followed by team mate, Carel Haasbroek (with a personal best distance of 68,79 m).

Alan Cumming also qualified for the Common Wealth Games with a distance of 69,70 m. He finished in second position at the Sasol/NWU Senior International Athletics meeting in Sasolburg. His sister, Marga Cumming took gold in the same meet.

In 2017 Stefanie Greyling was crowned as the SA Students Champion and earned a silver medal at the SA Senior Championships. JC Shultz and Tammy Leonard, both freshmen, received their call-up to the provincial side and took part in the SA Junior Championships in Paarl. JC tops the junior rankings in 2018 and Tammy has consistently thrown over 50 m at every event this year.

Carel Haasbroek, Tsepang Makhete, Basie Koen, Letitia Janse van Vuuren, Marga Cummings and   Stefani Greyling.