By ZINGISA MVUMVU
THEY have done it again.
East London’s Cranberry Primary School U13 hockey team are the national champions.
They triumphed in style with an unblemished record in five matches where they conceded not a single goal at the National School Sport Champions Winter Games that ended yesterday in Durban.
Cranberry won their three round-robin matches 4-0, 4-0 and 5-0 before a 3-0 win in the semis and finished their campaign with another 3-0 victory.
Their coach, Charlene Marajh praised her charges for a job well done saying it all boiled down to proper preparations and sheer hardwork.
This is not the first time this school have been crowned national champs for they earned the same title in 2013 before finishing runners-up in 2014 and not making the cut to the national champs last year – a time they used to rebuild according to Marajh.
An excited Marajh said: “I am very proud of my girls who against all odds and despite the fact that eight of them were injured they still pulled through. It is also please that all the hardwork we put in before coming here paid off and we are the national champions once again.”
Marajh was hoping the triumph would open doors, such as bursaries, for her players as they grow with the sport. Among the star performers for Cranberry at the event was Zukhanye Tyalintsika, who scored 10 goals in the whole competition.
But Marajh was also impressed by the team’s captain Shakira Wilson, who was among the eight injured whom she praised for leading by example.
Jody October, also injured, is said to have played an influential role in steering the Cranberry to glory.
“The whole team though did well and it was never going to be easy playing with eight injured players but I had to because they are our main players,” said Marajh.
Also coming back home with gold for Team Eastern Cape were the U17 and U13 girls soccer teams.
The EC has been a dominant force at school level in this sport code too having been crowned national champions last year. Also this week, The EC U16 netball team had finished third to be rewarded with silver medals.
In chess, EC also proved to be a force to be reckoned with after Hlumisa Vuso bagged gold and is due to represent the country in an international competition billed for Russia later this year.
Wheelchair tennis U15, the Eastern Cape province bagged silver while in Juskei U14 boys won silver and rugby U15 boys finished third, walking away with bronze. In volleyball, EC did not do well after coming seventh and eighth for girls U17 and U15 respectively.