Top shot heads to Paris
Matthew van Blerk can barely contain his excitement after being selected for the South African u-19 paintball team heading overseas in September.
“I thought going to Cape Town to play paintball was awesome, but to think I’ll be overseas is just amazing.”
These are the excited words of Matthew van Blerk (19), from Delville, whose love and dedication to a relatively unknown sport has seen him selected as part of the South African u-19 paintball team representing the country at the Paintball World Cup in Paris in September.
“This is the first year that national and provincial paintball teams are being recognised,” Matthew said.
Matthew is excited to head to Paris to face international teams.
“Locally, our biggest tournament is 50 teams but overseas there are over 300, with 11 people on a team,” he said.
Matthew, a matriculant at Jeppe High School for Boys, started playing paintball at the age of 14 after he attended a friend’s birthday party.
“I loved paintball because it reminded me so much of the army games I used to play in my own backyard with my best friend.
“It’s just better,” Matthew said with a laugh.
Matthew explained that while at the party an experienced paintball player asked if he wanted to play against him.
“At the time I didn’t know he was “sand bagging”, which is when an experienced player takes on an unexperienced player to make themselves feel better.
“He shot me to pieces, and I remember thinking I need to play this game and get that kind of gun and shoot him,” he said.
Deciding this was the sport for him Matthew sold his motorbike to buy his first paintball kit.
“Funnily enough I bought the kit from the same guy who shot me,” he said.
From there Matthew started his own three-man team called Uprising, and then tried out for and joined the five-man team Pandemic.
When asked what position he loves the most, Matthew doesn’t hesitate, “I love to play in the snake.
“Why, because the spectators are able to see me more, which I wanted, but more importantly because its where the action is,” he explained.
“You spend most of the game on your belly in the dirt taking fire, which is great because the more people fire on you the less there is on your team mates.”
When asked about the expenses involved in the sport Matthew admitted that it is a very expensive sport.
“Because it’s a small relatively unknown sport it can be hard to get sponsors so my parents and I had to pay for practices and tournaments,” he said.
Potential sponsors can call Matthew’s mother, Janine van Blerk, on 083 293 2231 to find out how they can get involved.
When asked if he’ll continue the sport after high school Matthew said: “I plan to play the sport and my current position as long as I can.”
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