Vygieskraal sports field in Athlone will be the place to be for schools athletics this weekend as it hosts the 2017 edition of the Western Province junior athletics championships.
For three days, starting yesterday, Wednesday March 1, the best of the best in the Peninsula will battle it out for the top honours.
With the ultimate provincial competition – the Western Cape Championships – scheduled to take place in two week’s time, every pupil that takes part in track or field events does so with that event in mind. The Western Cape championships will take place in Paarl.
Over the years athletes from the northern suburbs have always dominated these meetings and, most of the time, going all the way to the nationals.
So, the question people were asking is: What is it that they are doing right up north? Is it because their athletes are more talented than the southern suburbs-based ones? Or, is it because they put more time and efforts or have better facilities and coaching?
The answers to these questions differ, depending on who you talk with.
The people from the north are more likely to tell you that their athletes are just good at what they do. Or, they will say, they put more time, effort and resources into improving the sport.
Athletics administrator and coach of Uxolo Secondary School’s track and field sides, Jerome Maregele, said a number of factors may be the reason behind this dominance of the northern schools.
He was, however, also quick to note that the south-based school teams were showing the potential to turn things around.
And this, he said, was resulting in the competition being tougher instead of it being a one-sided affair where the north dominates the proceedings.
His own school’s pupils have done well in the the zonals, only to struggle when it comes to the WP champs – when they meet competition from the north.
He said the athletes from the south were starting to put more effort on trying to find ways to better their games.
Maregele said having a stronger south will also be good for the province as a whole as it will mean a wider pool to pull from.
Schools like Mondale have in the past shown potential with impressive results.
Although dominating last week’s Southern Zone Section A meet, winners Mondale High’s athletes can expect an uphill battle when they face their Northern Zone counterparts at this week’s WP championship.
At last week’s affair, Mondale blew away all and sundry in their zonal meet to be crowned champions for the ninth consecutive year.
All their athletes need is to take that form to the Western Province and Western Cape Champs, where they will come up against the best of the best.
So, this weekend’s event will give fans a clear picture of whether the field, in terms of competition between the north and the south, is level or not.
The north will, of course go there with the intention of maintaining the “status quo”.
Knowing how to win competitions like these, they will go all out. It is then, up to the southern athletes to show they can compete.
