Ontiretse Motingwa

The All Sports Chapter (ASC) on the North-West University’s Mafikeng Campus recently hosted an inter-residence tournament in support of Student Counselling Development’s (SCD’s) Meal-A-Day project.

Students were invited to donate non-perishable goods in exchange for tickets to attend the finals of the tournament.

The Meal-A-Day project is a food security programme that provides needy students with a monthly supply of non-perishable food and other essentials such as toiletries and clothes.

 “Master”. That is a title few can lay claim to. Best of the best. That is when a profession becomes a calling and is then developed into an art. Terseus Liebenberg definitely falls into this category.

Over more than three decades his knowledge and skill have taken athletes with talent and transformed them into global stars.  

In the recent 2021–2022 SA Athletics Annual, a publication of the SA Athletics Statisticians (SAAS), Liebenberg was named the top coach of the readmission era by the executive committee of the sports body.

Three years and 21 games. That is how long the senior team of the North-West University (NWU) (this is now not the Varsity Cup team) has been undefeated.

On Saturday afternoon in Potchefstroom the NWU beat a star-studded Wits by 37–19 to remain undefeated in this, their eighth victory of 2022 in this year’s Predator Competition.

The second team won by 21–7, the third team by 64–12, the under 21s by 45–35 and the under 19s by 43–0.

It is clear that the NWU’s senior team has found a dream partnership in coaches Burger van der Westhuizen and Leon Boshoff.

The North-West University (NWU) Soccer Institute players, who are in the pole position of qualifying for the National ABC Motsepe League playoffs, are holding their breath for it will be the deciding game for the North West ABC league.

The institute, who is the log leader in stream B of the North West ABC Motsepe League, is scheduled to play one game against stream A log leader, Orbit College FC.

This game is scheduled to take place on Thursday, 2 June 2022 at the NWU Potchefstroom Campus’ Fanie du Toit sports grounds.

You will need both hands for this. Ten – count them – ten North-West University (NWU) Eagles from the NWU’s athletics club have been included in the South African team that will compete in the CAA Africa Championships that will be held in Mauritius from 8 to 12 June.

 That is excluding long-distance runner Elroy Gelant, who is a staff member of the NWU, but not a member of the athletics club.

In all, 89 South African athletes will compete on the island in the Indian Ocean, the largest contingent from the Republic yet.

You cannot keep a good man down. Michael Seleka, football manager and head coach of the NWU Tawana at the North-West University’s (NWU) campus in Potchefstroom, sounds dejected as he gives a recap of his team’s performance in the SAFA ABC Motsepe League. The NWU Tawana ended their 2021/2022 campaign in a disappointing seventh position.

In the 2020/2021 season, the NWU Tawana ended in a respectable fourth position on the overall log of nine teams.

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