2022 Cross Country running season well underway
League 4 will take place on 23 July, followed by league 5 on 30 July. League 6 will take place on 6 August 2022 and incorporates the 2022 Fezile Dabi Cross Country District Cham- pionships. Entries remain open to athletes from all provinces, and the 2022 champion-ship title in each category is up for grabs.
In 2021, Parys Multisport presented its first season of the Fezile Dabi Open Cross Country League and sent 35 athletes to compete in the 2021 Free State Provincial Cross Country Championships.
Of these athletes, 12 made the Athletics Free State team that competed at the 2021 ASA National Cross Country Championships.
In 2022, Parys Multisport returned with a six-part Cross Country Running league. The first league took place at Koedoeslaagte on Saturday, 23 April 2022. ASA-licensed athletes from all provinces can compete in this league and take a shot at a Fezile Dabi District championship title.
The opening league of this series was met with lots of rain that left parts of the original course submerged. “Seeing the Vaal River in flood is quite spectacular, but it left us with a few challenges to overcome,” says Pierre Fourie, the Fezile Dabi Cross Country Championship League organiser. “Cancelling the event was not an option.
We had three days to design and build a new course. The team at Koedoeslaagte did a fantastic job to make this happen, and we ended up having a better course than the previous one”.
The second league took place on Saturday, 7 May, with the number of participants nearly doubling the first league.
After the first league, more teams, new athletes, and new talent joined, accepting the challenge to conquer the new course.
On Saturday, 14 May, the runners lined up, once again, for the third league in the series.
The combined group of clubs and schools totalled 10 teams, representing age groups from six years to 65 years old. Koedoeslaagte came to life with spectators cheering while athletes show-cased their best performances.
By the end of the third round in this series, all but two of the course records remained standing; The 3km men’s course record (12:20) set by Wian Pienaar from Kroonheuwel Primary School in 2021, and the 6km women’s course record (28:10), set by Charné Erasmus from Sasolburg Athletic Club in 2021.
New course records:
1 km (B8) 04:35 – Kyle Mitchley (Salamon Senekal HS)
1 km (G8) 04:41 – Mia Conradie (Salomon Senekal HS)
2 km (B10) 08:04 – Janco Ferreira (Parys PS)
2 km (G10) 08:55 – Chloe van den Berg (Salomon Senekal HS)
3 km (G11) 12:48 – Nuri Rourke (Parys PS)
4 km (M23) 13:28 – Fusi Thulo (Sasolburg AC)
4 km (G17) 16:53 – Johanné Hayes (Parys HS)
6 km (B16) 21:38 – Lushet Mfokazana (Parys Multisport)
8 km (JM) 29:35 – Hector Ntsutle (Parys Multisport)
10 km (SM) 34:03 – Hector Ntustle (Parys Mutlsiport).
Three league races remain in this series.
