Three UJ athletes in the running at African Champs

Three of the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) most promising young athletes have been selected for the South African squad to take part in the 12th Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) African Junior Athletics Championships from 5 to 8 March in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

First-year students Wanzel Breytenbach, Johan Scholtz and Zinzi Chabangu, all aged 18, will aim to make an impact at the highest level when they represent South Africa on the international stage.

All eyes will be on South Africa’s number-one-ranked junior discus specialist Scholtz, who will be representing the country in that event and the shot put.

The business management student will be challenging his personal and season’s best throw of 56.76m in his signature event.

Last year, Scholtz scooped the gold medals at both the national and southern region championships.

Although this will not be the first time that he will be participating in this competition, Scholtz said it was a privilege and an honour to represent the country and he hoped to be an ambassador for South Africa.

“I plan to achieve my highest potential. As an athlete I have a lot of determination, self-discipline, ambition and physical strength. I believe I am in top form for this competition. I train with the discus for two to three hours a day and in the gym for another,” he said.

Coach Pierre Blignaut said Scholtz had the potential to approach the 60m mark with the discus.

“He can do exceptionally well in this competition and has a very good chance of walking away with a gold medal.”

Another of Blignaut’s protégés, shot-putter Breytenbach, who is also a former junior national champion, will be hoping to beat her personal best of 13.96m.

The hospitality management student has heaved a season’s best of 13.45m so far.

“When you start doing sport, your dream is to represent your country and the feeling of me doing it is extremely exciting. The trust your sports federation has in you and the support of family and friends motivates you to go for gold,” she said.

Blignaut, with whom she has been training for three years, said he had no doubt that the young athlete’s training would pay off in the international tournament.

Long jump and triple jump star Chabangu is aiming to beat her personal bests of 6.10m and 13.12m respectively.

Chabangu holds the national triple jump record and ranked first in South Africa in both disciplines last year.

The national diploma student has ranked as high as 16th and 22nd in the world in her respective categories.