Benoni sport in 2016 (January to June)

The calendar year 2016 was another where Benonians showcased their skills and talents in sporting arenas throughout South Africa and across the globe.

The emergence of a number of young talents in 2016 bodes well for many more future Benonian success stories.

Benoni has also hosted many well-supported local, provincial and even international sport events.

As always, the City Times kept a close eye on the performances and achievements of Benoni’s sportsmen and sportswomen.

These are some of the moments (from January to June) that will be remembered from 2016:

January

• Morehill resident and Ebotse Links golfer Jayden Schaper captured a brilliant victory in the Nomads SA Boys U-15 Championship at Fish River Sun Country Club, on Friday, January 8.

• Modderfontein golfer Dylan Naidoo made a superb start to the 2016 season when he claimed a five-stroke victory in the prestigious Nomads Dr Bam Tournament, at Benoni Country Club (BCC), on Friday, January 8.

• Benoni businessman, resident and quad rider Ted Barbier fulfilled a dream by participating in the gruelling Dakar Rally in South America on his YFZ 700R Yamaha, finishing in a respectable 21st position overall.

• Actonville Spurs Cricket Club (ASCC) welcomed new Premier XI head coach Thomas “TP” Pekane to the club with the opening match of the second round of fixtures for the Easterns 2015/2016 campaign, against Tembisa, on Sunday, January 17.

• Eventual Sunfoil Series champions, the Titans, went top of the Sunfoil Series log with a four-wicket victory over the Sunfoil Dolphins on the fourth and final day of the match played at Sahara Park Willowmoore on Sunday, January 17. Heino Kuhn steered the hosts to the win in Benoni with two excellent batting innings of 129 runs and 62 runs.

• Benoni-based golfers (amateur and professional) Nicole Garcia (Ebotse Links), Lejan Lewthwaite (Lake Club Benoni) and Casandra Hall (Ebotse Links) competed at the Ladies Joburg Open at the Royal Johannesburg and Kensington Golf Club’s West Course, from Monday, January 18, to Wednesday, January 20.

• Prodigious Benoni runner Robyn Kaltenbrunn completed her first 21km in fine style, by winning the junior women’s category at the 15th Dischem Half-Marathon, held at the Bedfordview Virgin Active Club, on Sunday, January 17. Kaltenbrunn, a KPMG Running Club junior, teamed up with 2015 Two Oceans Marathon and 2015 Comrades Marathon winner Caroline Wöstmann, who paced the young athlete through her debut half-marathon.

February

• Over 11 000 runners converged on the new home of the Johnson Crane Marathon, Sahara Park Willowmoore, for the 34th running of the popular event, hosted by Benoni Harriers Athletic Club, on the morning of Sunday, January 31. Maxed Elite veteran runner Charles Tijane (two-time Comrades gold medallist) crossed the finish line as the winner of the main 42.2km marathon. Nedbank Running Club’s Charné Bosman, who would go on to win the 2016 Comrades Marathon women’s race in May, won the women’s marathon.

• A Protea-injected Titans side ensured a 55-run over the VKB Knights, in their Momentum One Day Cup day/night match, at Sahara Park Willowmoore, on Friday, January 29.

• The Benoni club cricket derby took place at Lord’s Cricket Grounds in Actonville on Sunday, January 31. It was Benoni Northerns Cricket Club’s (BNCC) Premier XI who again enjoyed derby day success over Actonville Spurs Cricket Club (ASCC) with a five-wicket bonus-point victory over their Benoni neighbours.

• The Benoni City Times and Caxton Local Newspapers announced that they had jumped on-board with Benoni Northerns Athletics Club (BNAC) as the official media partner for the Benoni Northerns Marathon (former SlowMag Marathon) which took place in April.

• The South African women’s cricket team, the Momentum Proteas, ended a three-year wait to play international cricket in their own backyard with the first of their three-game One-Day International (ODI) series against England at Sahara Park Willowmoore on Sunday, February 7. A career-best score of 90 runs from opener Trisha Chetty was not enough for the Momentum Proteas as they slipped to a seven-wicket loss (on Duckworth-Lewis method).

• Benoni Northerns Indians Ball Club’s Rowan Ebersohn represented the South African national baseball team at the World Baseball Classic qualifier final against Australia in Sydney. The team was defeated 12-5.

• A strong contingent of local paddlers flew the East Rand flag high when they represented Homestead Dam-based Ekurhuleni Kayak Club (ERK) at the 2016 FNB Dusi Canoe Marathon from Thursday, February 18 to Saturday, February 20. Michael Stewart, consistently the top achiever paddler from the ERK, was again the top achiever from the area. He partnered with his junior son, Liam, to win the father-and-son category.

March

• Lifelong Rynfield resident Demetrios “Traki” Mavrikis became the first African skier to compete in and complete the Beaver Creek’s Talon Challenge in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. The Challenge requires participants to complete all 14 double black diamond and single black diamond runs (ski trail difficulty ratings) within the time period.

• It was a double-whammy of title defences in the men’s and women’s divisions at Benoni Country Club’s (BCC) 2016 club championships held on Saturday, March 5 and Sunday, March 6. Defending champion Brendan Flynn triumphed again in the men’s A-Division when he successfully secured a one-shot victory over runner-up CJ Head. In the women’s field it was 11-year-old sensation Kiera Floyd who repeated her 2014 and 2015 victories in some style by carding an incredible 147 over the two-day tournament to secure her third club champion victory. In a class of her own, Floyd left the field behind and achieved the biggest women’s victory in BCC history.

• After a titanic struggle with some young guns on the final nine, Michael “Splash” Kok became Lake Club Benoni Club Champion for 2016, with a magnificent six-under-par score (69, 69), in March. The women’s silver division was won by Candice Wort, with a fine gross score of 154.

• Ebotse Links held their annual club championships at the course over the weekend of March 5 and 6. Jaco Rall emerged as the men’s A-Division winner while exciting prospect Casandra Hall claimed honours in the women’s A-Division. Both golfers have now won their respective divisions for three years in succession.

• Benoni Northerns Cricket Club’s (BNCC) Premier XI managed to pip Brakpan’s United Cricket Club to the top of the Eastern Premier League standings on the net run rate calculation, having finished the league tie on 69 points. They would advance to the play-off semi-final against CBC Old Boys at Sahara Park Willowmoore.

• Nicholas Weeks, a former Benoni High School pupil and member of the Ekurhuleni Kayak Club (ERK), participated in the South African Canoe Sprint Championships at the Shongweni Dam in KwaZulu-Natal. It was the Benonian’s aim to take gold in the 200m event, but he was beaten into second place by a mere 0.3rd of a second. He went on to paddle in the K2 class 200m events with a paddling colleague, David Rodrigues. In this event the two outpaced their rivals to take first place and the gold medal.

• Over 50 preparatory and high schools from around the country and neighbouring Zimbabwe battled it out in the sporting disciplines of rugby, netball and hockey, in the third edition of the St Dunstan’s College Easter Sports Festival (held on Thursday, March 24, Saturday, March 26 and Monday, March 28).

• Two Benoni brothers, Sean and Adam Greve, braved the daunting eight-day mountain bike race, the 2016 Absa Cape Epic, and battled through innumerable obstacles and challenges along the more than 700km Western Cape route, to find their way to the finish line. The Greve brothers received the overall Conquer As One moment, meaning that they receive free entry into 2017’s event.

• Benoni jockey Derreck David made a dream debut on the Asian island of Singapore, to win the Kranji feature race at the prestigious Singapore Turf Club, on March 11. Riding the number 12 horse, Poseidon, trained by Australian Cliff Brown, David got the better of his rivals in the Racing Guide Classic.

April

• Second spot was a common theme for Lakefield resident and triathlete Casper Moodie when he took part in the 2016 South African and African Triathlon Championships in East London. Moodie placed second in his age category, second overall and second in the African Championships.

• Benoni had three junior gymnasts and two senior gymnasts, from the local acrobatic gymnastics club Gymfinity, participate at the biennial World Age Group Competition and World Championships in Putian, China. In the World Age Group Competition women’s group Kayla Marais, Rachel Nell and Tanith Havenga (in the 12-18 category) flew the Benoni flag. Armand Koekemoer and Noelle Geeringh participated at the World Championships as South Africa’s top senior mixed pair.

• The play-off final clash between Benoni Northerns Cricket Club (BNCC) and Kempton Park’s Premier XIs, at Sahara Willowmoore Park, on Sunday, April 3, had all the makings of a real classic, but it would be the team from the Barnard Stadium who would overpower BNCC to take all the plaudits and book a ticket to the elite National Club Championships, in Pretoria.

• Following three faultless clear rounds (the only three in the competition), top show jumping coach and competitive rider, Nicola Sime-Riley claimed the title as the 2016 Nissan South Africa Outdoor Grand Prix champion.

• The new-look Battle of the Roses tournament, the Easterns Cricket Union’s club franchise T20 tournament, was won by the Calypso Brothers, a powerful squad, which went unbeaten throughout the tournament.

• Farrarmere resident Kristian Fesel’s completion of his 12th Ironman South Africa, on Sunday, April 10, in Port Elizabeth, had added significance and meaning after he bounced back from having a brain tumour removed.

• Young running star Robyn Kaltenbrunn made good on her promise of becoming the first junior runner home at the 2016 Old Mutual Two Oceans Half-Marathon, in Cape Town, over the Easter weekend.

• Road warriors assembled in their thousands on the morning of Sunday, April 24, to take on the new-name Benoni Northerns Marathon through the streets of Benoni. Kenyan Felix Rop (running for Rocky Road Runners) would storm in to win the 42.2km main marathon. Kempton Park Athletic Club’s veteran runner, Vanessa Bowman, was the first open woman home in the marathon.

May

• The first South African Masters Weightlifting Championship in 20 years was held at CrossFit Jozi East, in Brentwood Park.

• History was made at the Sinaba Stadium in Daveyton on Saturday, May 7 with the launch of the Vuka League and Legends Cup tournaments for Ekurhuleni’s township schools.

• The Gauteng Canoe Marathon Championships, hosted by the Ekurhuleni Kayak Club, came to Homestead Dam over the weekend of Saturday, May 7 and Sunday, May 8.

• It was a display of sheer confidence and outright ruthlessness from Benoni fighter JP Buys, in his bantamweight clash with Abdul “Hollywood” Hassan, at EFC 49, in Carnival City’s Big Top Arena, on the night of Friday, May 13. The Lakefield resident stepped up to the heavier bantamweight division from flyweight and opened up a world of possibilities in the EFC organisation, with a first round TKO win (punches) in two minutes and six seconds over the seasoned veteran, Hassan.

• The pre-match hype surrounding the first Benoni Derby of 2016 was responded to well by the football-loving public as huge numbers of supporters gathered at Northern Areas on Saturday, May 21. The ELFA Super League clash, played between neighbours Benoni Northerns and Old Bens football clubs, was won by the home side by a 1-0 margin.

• Runners from Benoni’s athletics clubs (Benoni Northerns and Benoni Harriers) were among thousands who hit the road and who were left humbled by the extreme challenge posed by the world’s oldest ultra-marathon, the 2016 Comrades Marathon down run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban. Paul Pitco of Benoni Northerns Athletics Club (BNAC) was the first local runner home with a gross finish time of six hours, 52 minutes and 28 seconds.

• SuperSport United (SSU) striker and former Benoni High School pupil Bradley Grobler was a delighted man after his team lifted the Nedbank Cup, on Saturday, May 28 after a 3-2 win over Orlando Pirates at the Peter Mokaba Stadium, in Polokwane.

June

• Ekurhuleni’s women’s A golf side, comprising Casandra Hall (Ebotse Links), Sarah Bouch and Caitlyn McNab (both Serengeti Golf Club), lifted the Challenge Trophy with a crushing victory in the 72-hole Team’s Championship, at Middelburg Country Club.

• The Eastern Cricket Union celebrated 25 years of cricket administration in the region, at their annual awards evening, on the night of Friday, June 3, at the Classic India Restaurant, in Boksburg.

• Airfield resident and visually impaired bowler Beppie Summersgill and her director and husband, Cedric, attended the friendly International Four Nations Championship, in Israel, as part of a South African invitational team. Beppie, with her pairs partner Derek Carter, from Krugersdorp, and his director, Karin Gouws, won gold in the Israel International Open Pairs Competition. They then went on to take the runners-up position in the four nations test matches played between England, Scotland, Israel and South Africa. The Benonian also finished as runner-up in the women’s singles competition, in the same series.

• South African cricketing legends Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher attended the launch of the Grant Veenstra Golf Academy at Ebotse Links on Saturday, June 11.

• On the morning of Saturday, June 18, 621 runners and walkers celebrated the fourth anniversary of the weekly 5km, timed Ebotse Parkrun.

• The Eastern Gauteng Badminton Association (EGBA) played host to Badminton South Africa’s (BSA) u-9, u-11 and u-13 South African National Championships at the John Barrable Hall in Benoni from Saturday, June 25 to Friday, July 1.

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