Letitia Janse van Vuuren opened her domestic season on a high when she bettered the South African women’s Hammer-Throw record at a league meeting in Pretoria last month.
Building on that momentum, she also bettered the Varsity Athletics record in her first attempt, earlier this month in Potchefstroom. The Pukke-based athlete was the star of the field events in the first leg of the Varsity Athletics meet and the way things are unfolding, we are in for an even bigger spectacle come 31 March.
Pukke’s Letitia Janse van Vuuren was the star field performer at the first leg of the Varsity Athletics in Potchefstroom. Making the most of her home-ground advantage, Van Vuuren stepped into the Hammer-Throw circle and broke the Varsity Athletics record with her first attempt, adding another record to her tally. Her best of 58.22m was 3m shy of her of personal best; not bad for someone who probably had a training session the previous day.
Nonetheless, Van Vuuren’s performance set the tone for the remainder of the meet and top performances were the order of the day. Firstly, Pukke’s men set the bar so high in the Javelin that no other university could get anywhere close to the top three; Johan Grobler (75.40m), Leon Laubser (73.38m) and Erich Wiese’s (71.58m) world-class showcase can only be a sign that something special is brewing at North-West University.
On the other hand, UJ continued their dominance in the women’s Triple-Jump when Catherine Makhaya, Zinzi Chabangu and Helga Bensusan finished first, second and third respectively. Jovan van Vuuren (Kovsies) and Koketso Mogapi (Pukke), however, stripped UJ of their dominance in the men’s section with their 7.73m and 7.63m first and second place leaps whilst Garth Ellis easily won the men’s High Jump with his 2.05m clearance.
Stiff competition in the men’s Discus Throw saw Patrick Duvenhage (53.22m) narrowly beating Jason van Rooyen (52.09) and it was no different in the women’s Shot Put where both former and current national champions Ischke Senekal (Madibaz) and Lezaan Jordaan (UJ) clashed head-to-head. The competition was tense and exciting, but eventually Senekal took the honours with her 16.67m attempt, outwitting Jordaan’s best of 15.57m.
With just under 10 national athletic records broken within such a short time-span, we can’t help but eagerly anticipate the second varsity Athletics meeting on 31 March! Janse van Vuuren spearheaded the Varsity Athletics action alongside the track stars and if the weather plays along on 31 March, she, and all the other athletes, should go one better.
By Reginald Hufkie
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