Team Mpumalanga stamp their authority at the Indigenous Games
For the second year in a row, it looks like Team Mpumalanga’s drie stokkies players will bring home the bacon at the National Indigenous Games Festival.
The six players did not have any trouble to stamp their authority in the week-long tournament which started on Sunday at Seshego Stadium in Limpopo.
Banele Shabangu, Nomfundo Simelane, Thokozani Masemola (female players), Phakiso Selebe, Bandile Mabuza and Alfa Manzini (male players) all booked their places in the semi-finals with impressive jumps and put the team in pole position to get a couple of medals in the discipline.
Last year Shabangu won gold in the female category and she was on course to win a hat-trick of gold medals. In other opening day results, the team did well in jukskei, kho-kho, morabaraba, while they achieved mixed results in dibeke, intonga, kgati, ncuva.
Read: Awards to celebrate Mpumalanga athletes
Indigenous Games are used in promoting cultural activities that have a particular appeal to vast sectors of the South African community – young and old, black and white. This year’s all nine provinces are fighting for top honours in the following codes diketo (coordination game), dibeke (running game), khokho (running game), morabaraba (board game), incuva (board game), jukskei (target game), kgati (rope-jumping), intonga (stick fighting) and drie stokie.
What is drie stokkies?
The gameis played by a team consisting of six players – three boys and three girls – who complete against another team of the same amount of players. An athlete that wants to participate in this game should have the ability to get maximum lift from the grass to jump over the sticks. The three sticks are placed one meter from each other on the grass. Players of the two team’s line up, run and start to jump. The players should only step once between the sticks. When a player jumps between the sticks s/he is not allowed to touch the sticks with his or her foot.
How do you score?
The player from the team that jumps the last (stretcher) should jump to reach the furthest point with his or her jump. Where that player stop the last stick needs to move
to where his or her heels lands.
Also Read: Team Mpumalanga ready for indigenous games
How do you win?
Measurements from the middle stick to the end stick will determine the winner.
