After coming in second in the Long Jump in Potchefstroom a few weeks ago, NWU-Pukke’s Bianca Erwee will now shift her focus to the Triple Jump in the next Varsity Athletics meeting in Stellenbosch on April 20.
The multi-talented athlete will also be absent from the High Jump, which is the event she won last year at the very same ground she will be competing next week.
“I am only doing the Triple Jump with Julia Du Plessis doing the High Jump. I haven’t been preparing for Triple Jump this time because it is not one of my events,” Erwee told varsitysportssa.com.
“I haven’t been jumping since 2008 so I would just be lucky or happy to get it at 11.5m. I have no idea who is competing for the other universities. My strongest events are Long Jumps and High Jump and then Triple Jump I think, but I have not been doing it for very long.”
Erwee will be competing at the Athletics South Africa Senior Track and Field Championships the weekend before her Varsity Athletics requirements and feels that her training for the one meet will help her with the other.
“I will be participating in the Senior Champs in the Decathlon and the High Jump. I’m focussing all my training on the Senior Champs and I am hoping it will be enough for Varsity Athletics as well,” she said.
If she did not have enough on her plate, Erwee will also be looking ahead to the USSA Championships happening on the weekend of April 24 where she hopes she will make the cut for World Student Games later this year in South Korea. It will be her second year at the prestigious event if she qualifies.
This year will also be Erwee’s last in Varsity Athletics as she has already turned 25, the maximum age allowed for participating athletes. She said the level of competition in the meetings have grown considerably since the inaugural event back in 2013.
“I am sad it is my last year. I would like to compete again next but unfortunately I won’t make the age restriction.
“If you compare this year’s Varsity Athletics with the previous ones, there has been better performances. Varsity Athletics has improved a lot and it will continue to do so in the next few years,” added Erwee.
