Eben brings back a silver and bronze medal

Eben Fourie, a blind bowler and his director Hannetjie Smit can be proud of their achievement and for holding eMalahleni and South Africa’s name high at the International Disabled Bowls Association (IDBA) tournament.

This tournament was held in the Cape Town from March 20 to March 31 and players from around the world joined in on the tournament.

Blind bowlers have to play with directors, so if a player is selected and gets a medal his/her director gets the same. They are a team.

Blind bowlers are divided into four categories. B1 (is totally blind player), B2 (can see a very little), B3 (can see more but can use a monocular to look at the head, or watch their bowl) and B4 (can see more in some cases they can see the head and do not use their director to stand in front).

Eben is a B4 player as he has Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). It is the third time that Eben and Hannetjie were selected to represent South Africa.

The first time was in 2011 in the IDBA at Wingate Park in Pretoria; there they won gold in the men singles and gold in the mixed pairs.

The second time was in 2013 when they participated in Worthing, England in the IBBA Championships; there they won gold in the mixed pairs. South Africa also won the Team Trophy.

In 2016 they were a part of an invitational team for visually impaired players to play in Israel. There they won gold in the International Mixed Pairs Championship. Eben did not compete in the singles.

This years IDBA tournament was very tough. The standard of bowling during this tournament was very high, and the wind also played a big part in each game every day.

The extreme heat played its part, the one day it was 38°C and the afternoon games were stopped after two players collapsed, and after nearly two hours play resumed.

“We were two players and two directors from Mpumalanga. Jaco van Straaten a B2 player and Johan du Toit director from Groblersdal were also part of our team. They won gold in the B2 men’s singles,” said Hannetjie.

Eben and Hannetjie made eMalahleni very proud by bringing home a bronze medal in the men’s singles and a silver medal in the mixed pairs with Princess Schroeder and her director Graham Ward, from Cape Town. Each game they played was very tough against the best from each country.

Eben and Hannetjie are members from Witbank Golf Bowling Club and he is also a very competitive bowler against sited players.

“Being half blind did not stop him from being an achiever. For him a true champion has the ability to strive towards their goals despite the challenges and circumstance,” said Hannetjie.