Achieving in all spheres

CRICKET

Congratulations to Wandile Makwetu and Curtis Campher who have been selected for the SA U19 cricket squad and we wish them the best of luck for the upcoming Youth ODI series against World Champions, West Indies in July.

Further congratulations to our cricketers (current and Old Boys) on the following awards as announced at the GCB (Gauteng Cricket Board) Awards Dinner.

GCB Schools Team of the Year (1st Team)
Billy van Zyl - U13 Player of Tournament Award
Ryan Rickelton - Highveld Strikers players Award
Wiaan Mulder - Lions Newcomer of the Year Award

SWIMMING

Michael Deans, swimming for Gauteng, achieved 5 gold medals at the SA Schools Aquatics National Championships held in Limpopo, 10-13 April. 3 individual medals for the 50m, 100m and 200m Breaststroke and in the 50m & 100m Medley Relays. He also achieved the Best Male Performance (FINA Points).

Congratulations to Lukas van der Merwe who qualified for the National Men’s Championship and is ranked 10th in the 200m Butterfly stroke in the senior level. We wish him all of the best for this event that will take place in Durban.

ARCHERY

Congratulations to Connor Young who has taken part in a few Archery competitions this year, successfully placing in all of them. In the Arnold Classic, he placed second in under 15 recurve men. Connor shoots with recurve which is the acceptable international competition bow. He has just started in U15, so the distances change from 9m in U13 to 18m in U15.

FENCING

Congratulations to Harry Saner who recently attended the Junior World Fencing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria (1 - 9 April 2017), where he participated in the Cadet (u17) Foil & Epee events, as well as the Junior (u20) Foil & Epee events. Harry achieved a remarkable result in the u17 Epee where he finished in the Top 64 at 59th position, the best result for a South African Fencer at this and the previous World Championship.

In the GFA (Gauteng Fencing Association) Ranking Competition (Provincial Competition) held in conjunction with the Arnold Classic Multi Sports event at Sandton Convention Centre, Harry won four medals, notably a silver medal in the Senior Epee Event, a Gold medal in the U20 Foil event, a silver medal in the U20 Epee event, and a bronze in the Senior Foil event.

Harry also achieved two Gold medals at the Western Cape Open (National competition) in Cape Town on 20 and 21 May 2017. One for Junior (U20) Mens Epee and one for Junior Mens Foil. Harry has gained in experience and confidence as a result of his participation in the Junior World Championships and is fencing with passion and determination.

WATER POLO

Congratulations to Kagiso Mataka who captained the SA U17 Water Polo Team to Gold at the EU Nations Cup in the Czech Republic. To reach the final, they beat Wales 13-1, Lithuania 17-6 and Switzerland 13-10. In the semi-final against the host nation, they won 12-6. Finally they beat England 8-6 in a hard-fought final.

TENNIS

Congratulations to Bertus Kruger who has been selected to represent South Africa at the Junior Roland Garros French Open Tennis Tournament. This is an incredible achievement and very few South Africans have managed to achieve this.

Congratulations to Justin Liebenberg who captured another title by winning the Boys U18 Nationals Doubles event with his Pretoria based partner, Lleyton Cronje. The pair succeeded without dropping a set throughout the tournament. In the Boys U18 Singles, Justin reached the semi-finals where he lost to eventual Nationals Singles title winner, Philip Henning, of Grey College.

GOLF

Woodlands Junior Masters Golf Competition. Six of our golfers participated in a 54 hole competition at the Serengeti Golf Estate from Sunday to Tuesday this week with the top 25 Top golfing schools in South Africa including many Golf Academies who specialise only in playing golf in their schools. 

Our Team position – 7th out of 25 teams

Individual position – Connor Williamson came 4th out of 100 players

Shaunak Rama came 2nd in the Putting Competition

CROSS COUNTRY

Our boys participated in two Cross Country events last week. At Summit College Paemo Nyembe did well where he finished 3rd in the senior race (field of 104 athletes) and Liam Keegan showed consistency finishing 6th in the junior race (field of 103 athletes).

The senior and junior boys continued their fight for a place in the district teams. The boys had to contend with the rain and the complexity of the single track course through the campus woods.

Despite these challenges Paemo Nyembe and Thomas Lee finished 3rd and 5th respectively from a field of 98 senior athletes. Liam Keegan managed to improve on his 6th place in the previous three races with an excellent 4th place from a field of 96 junior athletes. We also congratulate the juniors on hanging onto their third place in the junior team event, they finished third in the last three races. They must be commended for their tactical running against the other 20 teams.   

SQUASH

Many of our boys participated in the Gauteng Closed Squash Tournament this past weekend at the Parkview courts. We would like to congratulate the following boys for being selected for the Gauteng Squad in preparation for the IPTs in July:

U19: Mark Strickett and Sebastian Carr

U14: Cameron O'Grady

WEIGHTLIFTING / POWER LIFTING

Congratulations to Ross Booyse for achieving a Gold Medal at the Arnold Classic Africa. Ross achieved his personal best for both the Snatch (77kg) and Clean and Jerk (100kg). This is a great achievement seeing that he has a body mass of just 61kg. Ross's great progress in the sport can be attributed to his coach, Steve from School of Strength.

ROWING

Congratulations to Mitch Booyse on a great weekend at the Senior South African Championships on the Buffalo River. He won a gold medal, coxing for Junior Ladies' Gauteng 8+ and a Gold medal coxing Junior Men's Gauteng 4+.