Nelson Mandela Metro District is expected to dominate the Eastern Cape High School Track and Field Provincial Championships.
The rampant metro is coming from another outstanding performance in the primary schools version of the event last weekend where they came out tops with a whopping 65 medals.
This time they have an advantage as they will be hosting the event in the Friendly City at the Nelson Mandela Metro University, South Campus in Summerstrand.
The provincial department of sport, recreation, arts and culture; its counterpart from education and the provincial school athletics structure will oversee the the event.
Media, marketing and communications officer for the extravaganza estimated to have about 1000 participants, Wandile Aba was confident that the windy Port Elizabeth is ready to host a successful event.
The standard would be high, hence the decision to have the showpiece take place at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s state of the art facility.
As the seven districts making up the East Cape province will convene on Friday and Saturday, the altitude is likely to favour those coming from coastal areas, which further bolsters the chances of Nelson Mandela Metro and its foe in the form of Amathole who were runners up last weekend.
Inlanders such as OR Tambo, Alfred Ndzo and Joe Gqabi will have a mountain to climb in adapting to the weather conditions.
Worse for OR Tambo, they are still licking their wounds after their dismal showing in the primary school champs last week, where they came last.
“The world class facility at the Nelson Mandela University provides all athletes to perform to their full potential,” said an excited Aba.
“At advantage will be pupils coming from coastal areas because of obvious reasons relating to altitude.
“We are going to have a very good and highly competitive competition and we expect sparks to fly,” he said.
“We will have competent officials with national level experience because we will be using the services of ASA accredited officials.
“This will help in that we will have well-prepared athletes when we go to the nationals in Rustenburg on March 28. We also expect records to be broken. We know there are capable athletes who will step up to the plate.”
The event will start at 7am on Friday and finish on Saturday night.
However, the official opening ceremony will only be at 5pm on Friday, for about 30 minutes.
It will be a long two days for the hundreds of hopefuls from the most rural to the most urban of schools from the length and breadth of the province.
No one will have room to complain because officials have promised that all will have comfortable accommodation close to the venue.
There will tight security in and around the university and medical personnel will be on standby to give swift attention to injuries.
All athletics disciplines will be represented but only a few will make the cut for the provincial team heading to the nationals.
Parents have been encouraged to accompany their children and come to cheer in their numbers.
Coastal team expects to dominate champs
The rampant metro is coming from another outstanding performance in the primary schools version of the event last weekend where they came out tops with a whopping 65 medals.
This time they have an advantage as they will be hosting the event in the Friendly City at the Nelson Mandela Metro University, South Campus in Summerstrand.
The provincial department of sport, recreation, arts and culture; its counterpart from education and the provincial school athletics structure will oversee the the event.
Media, marketing and communications officer for the extravaganza estimated to have about 1000 participants, Wandile Aba was confident that the windy Port Elizabeth is ready to host a successful event.
The standard would be high, hence the decision to have the showpiece take place at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s state of the art facility.
As the seven districts making up the East Cape province will convene on Friday and Saturday, the altitude is likely to favour those coming from coastal areas, which further bolsters the chances of Nelson Mandela Metro and its foe in the form of Amathole who were runners up last weekend.
Inlanders such as OR Tambo, Alfred Ndzo and Joe Gqabi will have a mountain to climb in adapting to the weather conditions.
Worse for OR Tambo, they are still licking their wounds after their dismal showing in the primary school champs last week, where they came last.
“The world class facility at the Nelson Mandela University provides all athletes to perform to their full potential,” said an excited Aba.
“At advantage will be pupils coming from coastal areas because of obvious reasons relating to altitude.
“We are going to have a very good and highly competitive competition and we expect sparks to fly,” he said.
“We will have competent officials with national level experience because we will be using the services of ASA accredited officials.
“This will help in that we will have well-prepared athletes when we go to the nationals in Rustenburg on March 28. We also expect records to be broken. We know there are capable athletes who will step up to the plate.”
The event will start at 7am on Friday and finish on Saturday night.
However, the official opening ceremony will only be at 5pm on Friday, for about 30 minutes.
It will be a long two days for the hundreds of hopefuls from the most rural to the most urban of schools from the length and breadth of the province.
No one will have room to complain because officials have promised that all will have comfortable accommodation close to the venue.
There will tight security in and around the university and medical personnel will be on standby to give swift attention to injuries.
All athletics disciplines will be represented but only a few will make the cut for the provincial team heading to the nationals.
Parents have been encouraged to accompany their children and come to cheer in their numbers.
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