Athletics: Records fall at Curro Podium

Kwaggas shine as records fall at Curro Podium South Athletics Meet

With roughly 30 schools from the Western and Southern Cape taking part and no less than 15 meeting records, the 19th of October 2024 will be remembered as a day when the importance of creating world-class opportunities for all school learners was underscored. Travelling to the Curro Podium South meet at the Dal Josaphat Stadium in Paarl from over 350km away in George, Höerskool Outeniqua athletes delivered a number of eye-catching results in a meet featuring high school stars like Naeem Jack, Faith Konde, Micha Africa and Nicola van der Merwe, to take home five of the eight available individual trophies as they won both the Best Boys Team and Best Combined Team trophies.

Another outstanding performance at the meeting was by Michaela Spocter from Merdian Pinehurst who won the Girls U17 high jump with her personal best and a Curro Podium’s record of 1.81m while gaining 980 ASA points. Spocter clinched gold in the Under 17 high jump category at the South African High School Nationals Track and Field Championship, reaching a height of 1.75 meters earlier this year.

Leading the South Western Districts’ powerhouse to victory in the Boys section were the performances of Jayden Fourie, Walter van Rensburg and Thinus Erasmus. Fourie who is the reigning South African U16 Long Jump champion, soared to a leap of 7.22 to win the Boys U15 Long Jump, while van Rensburg collected a maximum of 1000 points in the Boys U17 shotput. Erasmus who earned the 1500m bronze medal at the ASA U18 championships at the Pilditch Stadium in Tshwane in April, won the Boys U17 3000m (8:44.42) and dominated the metric mile to take line honours in 3:58.47 which was more than 14 seconds ahead of the runner-up.

“Getting this trophy is really something special for me because I haven’t won something like this before. Coming out of South Western Districts we don’t really have such a high calibre of competitions, so coming to this Curro Podium South meet and getting such good competition for the first time since the SA championships is amazing. Curro is doing a wonderful job,” said Erasmus.

Tasked with the responsibility of managing and coaching the Kwaggas athletics programme that developed Olympic silver medalist javelin thrower Jo-ane van Dyk and 2021 World Athletics U20 Pole Vault champion Miré Reinstorf is Jacques Wolfaardt. He praised the organisers of the Curro Podium South Meet for breathing life into athletics in a region of the country where team sports are increasingly more attractive to talented youngsters who are spoilt for choice.

“I want to thank Curro because this is a special occasion for us to win 5 of the 8 individual trophies. We don’t have clubs or universities that help us, so credit must go to all our coaches at the school. Athletics is a sport that is losing its popularity because we compete against all the winter sports like rugby, netball and hockey, yet athletics is the basis for all sports. Competitions like these are necessary for us to continue producing athletes like Jo-ane van Dyk and  Reinstorf Miré. We must fight for athletics,” said Wolfaardt.

Encouraged by both Erasmus and Wolfaardt’s comments, Cindy van der Merwe, Portfolio Manager for Curro Sport says this is precisely why the JSE-listed independent school group decided to invest in athletics. Van der Merwe insists that it’s not just about the Curro schools, but rather about helping to raise the standard of school athletics in South Africa by providing a stage for all talent to shine.

“Curro believes that every child matters. When we started with Podium, one of our goals was to create an event like today with the idea of creating a platform to produce champions. The thinking was that the athletes that will represent South Africa at the Olympics in Los Angeles 2028 should be from the opportunities created by the Curro Podium. This has already happened with Bayanda Walaza. But it didn’t end with Bayanda. Matodzi Ndou set a new South African record in the Boys U18 110m hurdles and then two weeks later the Curro Hazeldean boys set a new Boys U18 4x100m relay world best. So, it’s about creating opportunities over and over again where competitions of this level allow athletes to improve while preparing them to compete at a higher level.”

Team winners

Individual trophy winners:

With both the Curro North and South Podium meets completed, qualifying teams will prepare for the Curro Podium Grand Finale which is scheduled to take place in Pretoria on 8 February 2025.