UP-Tuks ladies field event athletes showed their dominance when they claimed two of the three field events at the final Varsity Athletics meet in Stellenbosch.
The Pretoria ladies proved they could jump higher and throw further than the rest of the competitors but failed to leap longer than UJ – who claimed top honours in the triple jump.
High Jump
The high jump was a straight out battle between June Roelofse of UP-Tuks and NWU-Pukke’s Julia Du Plessis as both ladies entered the fray with the bar set at 1.65m. Both easily cleared the height but failed to clear 1.7m with their next three jumps and had to settle for a share of top spot. There was joy for Maties as well as Carla Bron cleared 1.65m with her second attempt before failing at 1.70m in her final attempt to clinch third spot on count-back.
Shot Put
The top four ladies all exceeded the 15m mark and it would come down to a matter of centimetres to separate them in a tense battle. It would be Sonia Smuts of UP-Tuks who dug deep with her third throw of the night to land the killer blow with a distance of 15.78m. NWU-Pukke’s Geraldine Duvenage had only two valid throws on the night with her second throw flying 15.36m to secure second spot while Ischke Senekal of NMMU-Madibaz settled for third place as her third throw of the night landed on the 15.20m mark.
Triple Jump
UJ’s Zinzi Chabangu spoiled Tuks’ clean sweep when she claimed top honours with a fantastic leap of 12.84m to be the only athlete to exceed the 12m mark. Kelly Lynn Kingwill of NMMU-Madibaz settled for second place with a leap of 11.92m while third place was taken by UFS-Kovsies’ Marlize Campher with a leap of 11.75m.
