UWC sprint ace Brent Stevens has shifted his focus to the team’s needs as he prepares to compete in the 4x100m relay at the second Varsity Athletics meet in Stellenbosch on Monday, April 20.
UWC finished fifth at the season-opening Potchefstroom meet and Stevens is hopeful the team will be able to lift their standards and provide the team with a massive points injection in order to improve their overall ranking.
“We [the relay team] did not have the best night in Potch but we are confident we can redeem ourselves in Stellenbosch and end up in the top three again – where we have been in the past.
“As a team, considering we are one of the smallest universities in the competition, we did well to finish in sixth place overall. We work with what we have and every athlete gives it their all when they don the UWC jumper. We ended sixth overall last year, so ending sixth in Potch shows me that we have not dropped our level, which bodes well looking for future meets.
“Looking ahead to Stellenbosch, we are hoping to get the better of our arch-rivals Maties in their backyard, which will help us improve to finish at least one place higher than Potch. It will be a huge ask of us but we are up for it,” he told varsitysportssa.com.
The 25-year-old Education student was happy with his second-place finish – behind Akani Simbine – in the 100m event in Potch but admits it came as a surprise.
“I am very happy with my performance in Potch but I must admit that finishing second came as a bit of a surprise to me. Fortunately though, things worked out for me in the night and I ended up running a season’s best 10.49 seconds.
“There is no doubt Akani [Simbine] is the guy to beat in the country at the moment but the funny part is that when we raced against each other at junior level, he was the one trying to catch me – not the other way around. Unfortunately for me, I had a few injury setbacks but I am slowly regaining my form,” he added.
Despite not participating in an individual event, he stated that the likes of Yusuf Ismail in the 200m event and Rodwell Ndlovu in the 400m event will be the ones to look out for in Team UWC.
