The University of Johannesburg (UJ) athletes, Shirley Nekhubui and Leandri Holtzhausen, continue to showcase incredible athleticism in the 2025 season, setting and breaking new national records in their respective athletics events.

On Wednesday, 12 March 2025, Holtzhausen set a new South African record of 67.95m in the women’s hammer throw at the Athletics Grand Prix 1 held in Tshwane. She shattered her recent record of 66.54m throw set at the Central Gauteng Athletics (CGA) championships in Germiston last month in the event.

Nekhubui, a UJ Athletics Club member who hails from Venda, was also part of the South African women’s 4x400m relay quartet who shattered the national record with a time of 3:28.32.

The two athletes’ record-breaking performances come as the Club prepares to host the CGA championships league meet on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th of March 2025 at the UJ Athletics Stadium in Westdene.

Recently, several UJ student-athletes and club members have displayed remarkable speeds at various athletics events, running the fastest times in 2025 in the 60m and 150m sprints (Tsebo Matsoso and Udeme Okon at the Akani Simbine Classic Shootout), and the 400m hurdles and 300m individual sprints (Sabelo Dhlamini and Shirley Nekhubui at the CGAs and Akani Simbine Classic Shootout).

In a UJTV interview, the UJ Athletics Manager and Coach, Roger Haitengi, said that the students prepare for events way in advance, at times starting their training sessions as early as December to prepare for the upcoming competitions starting earlier each year. “It’s lovely to see that their hardwork is paying off. These athletes started training as early as October-November the previous year to prepare for this year. So, they’re fit and ready to qualify for various continental and international competitions such as the FISU World Student Games, Junior and Senior World Championships, and the World Relays,” he said.

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