AMANZIMTOTI Athletics Club athletes made history this weekend by recording the best-ever performance at the annual invitational Grey College Clover schools athletics meeting in Bloemfontein, in which schools from at least five provinces participated.
Junior athletes from the club, who participated for a Pietermaritzburg invitational team, bagged four gold, four silver and one bronze medal.
Lee-anne Blake continued to blaze her way to incredible performances by breaking her own 800m meeting record in the girls 14 event, despite blustery conditions with a blistering second lap after a tactical first lap. Her time of 2:14.36 bagged her the prize for the best track performance by a junior girl. However, this performance also earned her the award for the best female competitor of all age groups on the day. Her comparative performance on points was the best on the day of any athlete competing at the meeting, male or female. And just for good measure, she went on to win the girls 14 400m in the same windy conditions in a time of 58.33 seconds, only a whisker (0.11 seconds) outside the meeting record of the South African international star athlete, Justine Palframan.
Not to be outdone, Sesi Mbatha won gold in the girls 15 400m (60.38 seconds) and silver in the 200m (26.22 seconds) despite the fact that she is still U14 in age group. The other gold medal winner was Dwayne Trollip, who dominated the boys 17 400m, winning the event by more than half a second in 49.60 seconds, despite the wind. Hlengiwe Zuma bagged two medals with solid performances by winning silver in the girls 17 1500m and bronze in the 800m, with good times despite the wind and altitude. Rishen Archery just missed out on the gold medal in the boys 15 400m (53.10 seconds), achieving a well-deserved silver medal after a solid fifth place in the 200m in a personal best time of 23.12 seconds. Dehan Herbst won the only field event medal when he finished second in the boys 16 high jump, finishing with the same height as the winner. Mention must also be made of Anele Blake, who improved her 200m best by almost 1.5 seconds, when she dominated her heat and finished fourth overall in a closely contested girls 16 200m, just 0.17 of a second behind the winner of the race in a time of 26.62 seconds.