Cambridge and Queen's shine in Eastern Cape, qualify for T+F National Final

Cambridge High School and Queen's College booked their places in the National Final on Thursday, finishing top of the girls and boys divisions at the fourth leg of the rain interrupted Track+Field high schools athletics series in Queenstown.

In the girls competition, Cambridge completely dominated, raking in a total of 737 points.

They were well clear of Barkly East High School, who ended second with 467 points in the final standings, and Hangklip High School (413) were third.

The boys division was more tightly contested, with host school Queen's College earning 868 points at the summit of the table.

Barkly East (697) grabbed second spot and Cambridge (620) finished third.

In individual events, five athletes achieved more than 800 points in their respective disciplines, including three girls and two boys.

Among the girls, Keeziah Essop won the U17 200m sprint in 26.54 seconds, while Petra Kok took the U19 200m dash in 26.27 and Charne Pautz secured victory in the U19 shot put with a 10.49m heave.

In the boys division, Joshua Jordaan achieved more than 800 points in both the U19 200m and 400m sprints.

Jordaan won the 400m event in 48.01 and clocked 21.64 in the 200m race.

Salmon Sibabalwe also impressed, taking second place in the U19 400m sprint in 49.66.

Jordaan, the captain of the Queen's College team, was delighted to have led his school from the front with two spectacular performances, making full use of the opportunity to compete in the nationwide series which will be held in all nine provinces.

"It's an amazing feeling to have competed here. Our coaches are a wonderful bunch, and the athletes really stood out today," Jordaan said.

"I've used this as a base mark to see where I am. The long-term goal is the national championships, and hopefully I can qualify for the SA team to go overseas, so I tried to leave it all on the track today."

Abby Brummer, who runs the athletics programme at Barkly East, was pleased for their learners to have a chance to compete against the top athletics schools in the Eastern Cape.

Barkly East finished second in the boys and girls divisions after they had raised money to hire a bus to get them to the event.

"We're very grateful for this opportunity. Barkly East had an absolute blast. We feel privileged to have been able to compete today," Brummer said.

The next leg of the Track+Field series - a joint venture between SuperSport, SA Schools Athletics and Athletics South Africa - will be held in White River, Mpumalanga on Friday, 28 February.

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