The University of Pretoria are known for their sporting excellence and athletics has formed a major part of their success in recent years.

It was not a fluke that they dominated the first leg of the Varsity Athletics in Port Elizabeth last week, and it was expected.

But what is it that they are doing right that ranks them as one of the best Athletics Universities in Mzansi? How do they manage to get things right? How does their athletics system work? These are some of the questions that I had to ask myself after watching the first series in the Eastern Cape.

Well, the answer is quite simple. They have world class facilities and regularly go out to identify disadvantaged athletes and offer them bursaries to study further.

The High Performance Centre in Hatfield also boosts world class facilities and provides athletes with an added advantage over their competitors. I also looked at Varsity Athletics debut season records of last year, only to discover that UP-Tuks are continuing from where they left off.

Athletes such as Caster Semenya, an Olympic silver medallist, LJ Van Zyl 400m hurdles specialist and Akani Simbine, the African junior sprint champion, are some of the names which springs to mind when talking about UP-Tuks athletics success stories.

UP-Tuks have potential future champions within their ranks. Simbine is a promising sprint ace and he consistently runs great times. He has been offered a full bursary as he is studying Sports Engineering.
LJ Van Zyl’s bursary is sponsored by the High Performance Centre (HPC). UP-Tuks are also fortunate to have good coaches, who are fully committed to their jobs.

The young athletes that are representing UP-Tuks in Varsity Athletics are gaining invaluable experience that will stand them in good stead and earn them opportunities to compete at the Diamond Leagues Internationally. But management are also doing an equally good job by offering athletes bursaries. Up and coming athletes are also taught the basics of the sport.

UP-Tuks are doing a great job by investing in young athletes and that offers them a lot of depth. I have also noted that they have started their identification campaign a few years ago. But sports can only last that long and injury can always creep in and destroy careers.  But with their highly rated and qualified Sports Science team, athletes are offered correct treatments at the right time.

There is a saying that a single point of a failure is part of the system that if it fails, it will stop the entire system from working. This goes to show that there is a lot of work done behind the scenes by the UP-Tuks athletics club, which is responsible for the athletics programme. If they fail, the athletes will also fail and that can hamper SA’s chances of doing well at major events in the athletics calendar.

Add a winning culture and that is the reason why UP-Tuks athletics is a cut above the rest. The exceptional team effort, drive and determination will take them far without a doubt.

They are taking development of young athletes seriously and without development there would never be a professional set-up. I am looking forward to the next meeting in Potchefstroom to see the young athletes showcasing their talent. I wouldn’t be surprised to see UP-Tuks reign supreme again in Potchefstroom.

I hope to see these talented athletes at the SA junior Championships in Stellenbosch, the SA Championships in Pretoria to be hosted at UP-Tuks in April and the SA Open Championships in May.

The most interesting event for me in Potchefstroom that I am most looking forward to watch is the women’s hurdles. I will unpack it for you after my visit to that beautiful town.  I hope to see ladies thriving in a sport that is dominated by men in Mzansi.

By Charles Baloyi – sports writer for the Daily Sun and Sunday Sun newspaper