Van der Merwe shines at Curro Podium Athletics!
Luke van der Merwe (grade 11) won the boys 17 high jump at the Curro Podium Athletics, held at the Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria on Saturday 18 February 2023.
Beating out 33 other high jumpers, Van der Merwe cleared 2.0 meters for the second time this week, having done so at the Prestige Athletics on Tuesday 14 February 2023. This puts Van der Merwe on the top of the rankings for his age group and makes him a serious medal contender for both the ASA Age Group Championships (23-25 March 2023 at the Msunduzi Athletics Stadium, Pietermaritzburg) and the SA Schools Athletics Championship (2-5 April 2023, Germiston). His teammate Harrison Gibson jumped 1.85m and ended in the 8th position.
Other highlights on the day saw Wayden Julies record personal best’s for the 200m with 23.01 seconds (22th) and the 400m with 50.91 seconds (12th). Musahdiq Cornelson also ran a blistering 200m with a time of 23.36 seconds with Kyle Bonner improving his PB in both the long and triple jump, going 6.16m and 11.50m on the day.
Thomas Coetsee and Josh Venter both did well in the shotput and discus with Thomas ending 20th in the shotput and Josh ending 19th in the discus.
AJ Krynauw ran a 59.58 on the 400m hurdles to finish 11th with a 15.62 on the 110m hurdles earning him 12th place. Jordan Steenkamp ran a superb 14.95 seconds on the way to finishing 10th for the 110m hurdles.
Barthelemy Bena-Ntumba had the privilege of running in one of the 100m heats scheduled later in the day and his time of 11.21 was just outside of his PB and earned him a 17th place for the day. Unfortunately Elisha Miller had to withdraw on the day due to an injury.
The middle distance trio of Gerard Bekker, Mark Lester and Christopher Steyn also did well. Gerard ran a 54:30 in the 400m and finished in 10th position with his 800m time of 2:09.37 placing him at number 8 for the day. Mark ran 2:10,81 for the 800m which saw him earn the 10th place and 4:38,23 for the 1500m, which saw him come in at 20th. Christopher continued the strong showing with a 2:01,27 in his 800m race for 10the place and a 04:12,64 for his 1500m race to finish 14th.
The team finished in 17th position on the day and showed that the PRG athletes can hold their own on the national stage.
Thank you to Mr Willem de Villiers and Francois Nel for accompanying the team. The team also had a guided tour of the Union Buildings and Voortrekker Monument on Sunday morning.
