The track and field facilities at Johannesburg’s Westdene UJ Stadium will be playing host to some of South Africa’s top athletes, as they battle it out for both individual and team honours.
The fact that a miniscule 0.4 second time-delay becomes important must surely give an idea of the level of competitiveness. This is action-packed energy from start to finish. This is here and now – the pace is fast and non-stop action is the order of the day. Expect an adrenalin rush from the second event, which kicks off at 17h15 on the 14 April 2014.
Dewald Stander of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) will be out to improve on his 2014 performance during Monday’s event. Stander, the SA under-23 champion, has already proved his ability by passing the elusive 55m mark in the discus event – a certain sign of a good performance from him.
His UJ teammate, long jumper, Zarck Visser, who was placed fifth in the world in 2013, is now rated first in the world. This is an incredible achievement by the young Welkom athlete, who holds a personal best of 8.35m.
The Varsity Sports programme enjoyed a highly successful first season in 2013 and is now well into its second year. The participating universities will again compete across six sporting codes during 2014.
The next two athletics events will take place at Stellenbosch University on the 21 April and the University of Pretoria on 28 April. The men’s hockey will be taking place at four venues from 3 May and ending with the semi-finals and finals, which are taking place at the University of Johannesburg on 19 May.
Venues at Wits University and Stellenbosch will also be used. The men’s hockey will be followed by the football programme from 21 July to 15 September; netball from 15 September to 20 October; and rugby sevens and beach volleyball from 28 to 30 November.
Participating universities across all six sporting codes are: The University of Limpopo (UL); Free State (Kovsies); Pretoria (Tuks); Stellenbosch (Maties); NMMU (Port Elizabeth); North-West University (Pukke); Rhodes University; University of Fort Hare (UFH); Tshwane University of Technology (TUT); Vaal University of Technology; The University of Cape Town (UCT); the University of the Western Cape (UWC); University of the Witwatersrand (Wits); and the University of Johannesburg (UJ).
Varsity Sports
