In an era dominated by Tuks and UJ, could now be the time for a Maties rise? Breyton Poole could just be the catalyst to a Maties title charge in the 2019 season of Varsity Athletics.
Varsity Athletics’ seventh season is set to launch on Wednesday, as athletes gear up for a first meeting at the newly renovated Coetzenburg Athletics Track in Stellenbosch, on 1 March.
In meetings past we’ve seen the rise of young Kovsies 400m runner Wayde van Niekerk, the powerful young woman from NWU you’ll recognise as Caster Semenya and recently electrifying Tuks sprinter Akani Simbine of Tuks. The time has come for a new generation of Olympians to emerge, and one such candidate is young Breyton Poole.
In the DNA of all Varsity Athletics champions past, has always been one or two world class athletes. Victor and Victrix Ludorums, leading the way for their university, usually breaking Varsity Athletics records to boost their team’s points tally. Maties may just have their man in Breyton Poole, who it is rumoured will be announced in their 2019 team.
JVA Steytler of Kovsies broke the Varsity Athletics men’s high jump record in 2014 with a 2.11m jump and it hasn’t been broken since. The 18-year-old Poole recently jumped a 2.23 in Finland at the World U/20 Championships to place third.
Poole, who is in his first year of Varsity Athletics, fresh out of high school, regularly clears the 2.15m mark. So it’s not so much a case of if he’ll break the Varsity Athletics record, but rather by how many centimetres, if he takes part.
The Maties team will be released on Wednesday and if Poole is revealed as their ‘secret weapon’ then Maties students have a lot to be excited about. Breyton will quite literally raise the bar, in front of his home crowd at Coetzenburg on 1 March.
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