Schools hit the track for SA Champs glory in EL

THE South African Athletics National Secondary Schools Track and Field Championship kicks off today at 6am at the Jan Smuts Stadium.

Over 1800 athletes have been confirmed for the event which is being held in East London for the first time.

With an extremely difficult qualifying criteria, the competition pits only the best school athletes in the country against each other.

“The goal for us is for athletes to compete nationally at the highest level so that we can pass these results on to Athletics South Africa (ASA) and help usher in the new era of South African athletes,” said deputy chairman of SA High Schools Athletics Brandon du Plessis.

Eastern Province has 143 confirmed athletes participating in the event with 123 mainstream and 20 learning impaired athletes.

“Our athletes will make us proud ... Being a home competition will give them a boost ,” said EP Athletics general manager Xolile Nyamende.

Gauteng and Western Province will have the biggest contingent of athletes at the event with over 200 participants confirmed for both provinces.

From East London two of the most promising local medal hopes, according to vice-president of the Border Athletics Association Ntathu Gwadiso, will be Sibabalwe Mbimba of Hudson Park High in the 110m hurdles and Lindsay Killeen of Clarendon High in the javelin and high jump disciplines.

Grade 10 student Mbimba is no stranger to the podium at the championship after picking up the gold for the 110m hurdles in the U17 division at last year’s event in Germiston.

“I have been training hard for this tournament ... I trained through the whole of December, staying disciplined and the hard work is finally paying off,” said Mbimba.

This is Mbimba’s fourth major tournament of the season and he has already picked up first place finishes at the Border Schools and City Schools athletics tournaments in the 100m, 200m disciplines and 110m hurdles.

“I am not at 100% as I have a small niggle, but I will be giving it my all and I expect to do well,” said Mbimba.

Killeen, who is in her matric year, has been part of the Eastern Cape athletics setup since she was selected at only 11 years old.

Killeen has been a regular at the championship ever since and has been a constant feature in the top five of her age group recently.

This year she hopes to get that elusive medal after a lot of training.

“She trains very hard, but due to her SA Water polo commitments has to balance her training regimes out,” said her mom and javelin coach Linda Killeen.

The championship is a great opportunity for all pupils participating to impress ASA and do their province proud.

“All past SA athletes came from solid school athletics structures, so we fully expect to see some of these athletes as future SA Olympians,” said Du Plessis.