Tuks’s athletes will have to take the Varsity Athletics motto of faster, further, higher to heart on Friday in Potchefstroom if they want to have any chance of defending the Varsity Athletics title.

Since 2016 Tuks have dominated Varsity Athletics winning thrice in succession overall. However, this time around, for them to have any chance retaining the title it means one, hopefully, more athletes need to come up with astonishing performances.

After the first Varsity Athletics meeting in Stellenbosch Tuks are third overall, 156 points adrift from NWU and 111 points behind UJ.

Varsity Athletics is about excellence. The faster an athlete run, the higher or furthers the jump or, the more metres with each throw the more points are scored. Just winning races won’t cut it for Tuks on Friday.

It could be reasoned that if the likes of Tuks’s two 400m-hurdles world junior champions, Socks Zazini and Zeney van der Walt, or Thembo Monareng who was fourth in the 100m at the World Junior Championships are all are marginally faster than they were in Stellenbosch things might look up for Tuks. But it will be unfair just to depend on the three of them.

Theuns Ehlers who won the 800m in Stellenbosch running 1:49.28 is definitely capable of earning extra points for Tuks. At school, he started out as a sprinter. His best time in the 100 metres used to be 10.75s. It was after he missed out being selected as a hurdler for his high school’s team that he decided to take on a new challenge, competing in middle distance races.

Due to his aggressive approach when racing it did not take him long to impact in middle distance racing. He won his first South African title in 2015 and went on to represent South Africa at the World Youth Championships in Columbia where he finished fifth in the 800m-final. He has since medalled again at the South African junior championships in the 800m as well as the 400m.

Last year competing for the first time in the 800m at the South African senior championships in the 800m he finished 4th running 1:47.16 which is his current personal best. His best time in the 400m is 47.21s.

Ehlers impressed during the Stellenbosch Varsity Meeting taking the lead, never relenting, right from the start.

“I love running from the front sort of dictating the race, but I fully realise it is risky. If you get it wrong, you can end up just being a pacemaker. I am working to become tactically savvier.”

Ehlers honestly believes he is capable of running 1:46-something in the 800 metres. His goal is to qualify for the World Student Games in Italy.

When he was younger, the legendary David Rudisha (Kenya) used to be his role model, but nowadays he is looking up to South Africa’s Olympian and World Champion, Wayde van Niekerk.

“Wayde is for me the personification of being prepared to put in the long hard hours, believe in your abilities, as well as being patient that anything is possible.”

Tuks’s athletes will have to take the Varsity Athletics motto of faster, further, higher to heart on Friday in Potchefstroom if they want to have any chance of defending the Varsity Athletics title.

Since 2016 Tuks have dominated Varsity Athletics winning thrice in succession overall. However, this time around, for them to have any chance retaining the title it means one, hopefully, more athletes need to come up with astonishing performances.

After the first Varsity Athletics meeting in Stellenbosch Tuks are third overall, 156 points adrift from NWU and 111 points behind UJ.

Varsity Athletics is about excellence. The faster an athlete run, the higher or furthers the jump or, the more metres with each throw the more points are scored. Just winning races won’t cut it for Tuks on Friday.

It could be reasoned that if the likes of Tuks’s two 400m-hurdles world junior champions, Socks Zazini and Zeney van der Walt, or Thembo Monareng who was fourth in the 100m at the World Junior Championships are all are marginally faster than they were in Stellenbosch things might look up for Tuks. But it will be unfair just to depend on the three of them.

Theuns Ehlers who won the 800m in Stellenbosch running 1:49.28 is definitely capable of earning extra points for Tuks. At school, he started out as a sprinter. His best time in the 100 metres used to be 10.75s. It was after he missed out being selected as a hurdler for his high school’s team that he decided to take on a new challenge, competing in middle distance races.

Due to his aggressive approach when racing it did not take him long to impact in middle distance racing. He won his first South African title in 2015 and went on to represent South Africa at the World Youth Championships in Columbia where he finished fifth in the 800m-final. He has since medalled again at the South African junior championships in the 800m as well as the 400m.

Last year competing for the first time in the 800m at the South African senior championships in the 800m he finished 4th running 1:47.16 which is his current personal best. His best time in the 400m is 47.21s.

Ehlers impressed during the Stellenbosch Varsity Meeting taking the lead, never relenting, right from the start.

“I love running from the front sort of dictating the race, but I fully realise it is risky. If you get it wrong, you can end up just being a pacemaker. I am working to become tactically savvier.”

Ehlers honestly believes he is capable of running 1:46-something in the 800 metres. His goal is to qualify for the World Student Games in Italy.

When he was younger, the legendary David Rudisha (Kenya) used to be his role model, but nowadays he is looking up to South Africa’s Olympian and World Champion, Wayde van Niekerk.

“Wayde is for me the personification of being prepared to put in the long hard hours, believe in your abilities, as well as being patient that anything is possible.”