Semenya back on track
The third edition of Varsity Athletics will get under way on Tuesday
A STRONG contingent of university athletes will make their appearance in the third edition of Varsity Athletics.
The first meeting will take place on Tuesday March 24 at Potchefstroom, where some of the big names in South Africa will take to the track and show their mettle.
Nine of the 19 South African athletes who participated at the recently held Commonwealth Games in Scotland will be in action from this week.
One of the most commonly names on the South African platform is none other than Caster Semenya. She has made several moves over the past few years from her origins in Limpopo, via Pretoria and Johannesburg to settle in Potchefstroom, having the former middle distance star Jean Verster as her coach.
The formidable duo will not only take on her huge comeback in the 800m, but will have to combat some of the young up and coming athletes in this popular number.
“I am looking forward to the season and my preparation will focus on the basics,” said Semenya at the launch of Varsity Athletics on Monday March 16. “We will start at the beginning by developing my strength on the track and then move forward.”
“Potchefstroom is well known for some of the international athletes as a training camp,” she said, “We often train together when there are some of those athletes here, and we will often exchange some of our ideas with them. It is a perfect place to train and to stay in this kind of circumstances, and it suits us perfectly to get the optimal conditional training.”
Tuks was the champion for two consecutive years, and apart from Pukke, who will be utilising their optimal team to dethrone their counterparts, local university UJ will be out there with their promising athletes in the jumps and throws to accumulate as much points as possible.
