University of Johannesburg students Cheyna Tucker and Ruan Olivier will be swinging their squash rackets for our country at the World University Squash Championships. These two Westdeners will be representing South Africa in Chennai, India, from 1 to 8 September.
The pair were selected on the strength of their performance at the University Sport South Africa tournament in Stellenbosch in July, and their teammate Elani Landman has been chosen as the non-travelling reserve.
According to UJ squash manager Linly de Beer, the university went through the entire Ussa tournament – featuring 17 teams in a cross-team format – without losing a single match.
“Although this may seem like a walkover, both the NMMU and Tshwane University of Technology teams had some incredible players, and they cost us individual games.”
UJ squash rallied to their third gold medal in as many years at the national tournament.
De Beer said that although both Tucker, who is currently ranked number one in SA, and Olivier had undoubtedly contributed greatly to their overall win, it had been a solid team effort.
He attributed his team’s ongoing success to the high performance programme that was instituted in 2012 to improve the quality of squash at UJ.
“The main objective is to create opportunities for top school players to further their professional squash careers, while preparing for a life after squash.”
Participants receive sport scientific, biokinetic, physiotherapeutic and academic support as part of the programme, while national coach and selector Mike Bester handles the coaching aspects.
He said his team worked extremely hard for their successes on court and off, and that a number of players had also won awards for academic performance over the past few years.
“We would be failing our students if we put sport ahead of academics. To ensure a good balance in both, UJ Sport offers an academic support section whose sole responsibility lies in the academic monitoring of its student-athletes and providing the necessary interventions.”
