Athletes from the North-West University (NWU) – both former and current – were in exceptional form during the recently held Athletics South Africa Senior Track and Field Championships in Green Point, Cape Town.
In all, sixteen medals were won in a variety of codes.
Javelin throwers Johann Grobler and Jo-Ané van Dyk claimed gold, as did 20 km race walkers Marissa Swanepoel and Wayne Snyman. Valco van Wyk leapt the highest of all in the pole vault.
Their senior counterparts may have left the Varsity Cup competition a bit prematurely, but the NWU Eagles Young Guns aimed to go all the way when they squared off against Tuks in Stellenbosch on Monday, 25 April. It was not to be. The team from Pretoria, doing what Pretoria-based teams seem to be doing in every conceivable rugby competition in South Africa over the past year, beat the Eagles Young Guns 22–14.
It is not the fairy-tale ending the boys were hoping for, but the journey proved to be memorable.
He is no longer the reigning, defending, undisputed Two Oceans Half-Marathon champion. However, Elroy Gelant transcends the above-mentioned moniker. After the 2020 and 2021 half-marathons had been scrapped due to the Covid-19 pandemic, on Sunday, 17 April 2022 Gelant relinquished the title he had won in 2019. Yet he again showed the grit and resolve that have been hallmarks of his exceptional career. Gelant claimed silver, which is a great achievement that is made exceptional if one takes into consideration the thigh muscle injury he sustained at the 2021 Olympic Games in Japan.
Bertie Jacobs
Bertie Jacobs
The Netherlands won, but hockey triumphed. When the final whistle blew on Tuesday, 12 April, it was the Dutch fans who cheered and the players clad in orange who celebrated as the Netherlands beat Germany conclusively 3–1 in the final of the FIH Women’s Hockey Junior World Cup at the Astroturf of the North-West University (NWU) in Potchefstroom.
Bertie Jacobs
Oh my goodness, it is going to be a very close call. On Monday evening, 4 April the Eagles kept their playoff hopes alive in a sopping wet Bloemfontein by beating the CUT Ixias by 33–14.
Bertie Jacobs
It is no joke. From 1 April, the North-West University (NWU) will host the 2022 Women's FIH Hockey Junior World Cup at the Astroturf fields in Potchefstroom.
This is the ninth time the event has been presented, and it would have taken place in December, but the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus put paid to those plans.
Now, 16 teams comprising the best under-21 hockey players on the planet will come together next to the Mooi River from 1 to 12 April.