UJ crowned 2015 USSA Athletics Champs

April 2, 2015

News

Athletes from the University of Johannesburg (UJ) reigned supreme at the University Sport South Africa (USSA) National Institutional Track & Field Championship Tournament hosted in Stellenbosch from the 23-25 of April 2015.

“I am a very proud manager. The athletes, coaches and supporting staff each played their part extremely well.

The atmosphere was electrifying amongst the camp and each and every one put in 100%, which ultimately contributed to the team winning USSAs. We have really proved that winning is possible through team work,” stated UJ’s club manager, Roger Haitengi.

Haitengi won several medals at the championship himself. He further thanked the entire UJ community, staff and students for all the support that they have received.

The University’s athletes performed extremely well! Jaco ‘The Big Show’ Engelbrecht is currently in the best form of his life. He comfortably won gold in shot put with a distance of just under 50m. Anel Oosthuizen broke the 10km walk, and bagged herself a gold medal, with a time of 1:38:23.

The UJ women dominated the triple jump event with all three medals going to Patience Ntshingila, current SA record holder and national champ Zindzi Chabangu, and African Junior bronze medalist Catherine Makaya, respectively.

Four time African men’s high jump champion, Kabelo Kgosiemang retained his high jump title when he cleared the bar at 2.20m. While Dumisani Hlaselo bagged the men’s 1 500m title with a personal best time of 3:36:5. “My goal was to qualify for the World Championships. Now I will go out there and make my mark at the World Student Games and hopefully make the grade for the World Champs in Beijing,” Hlaselo declared.

UJ beat all the other participating universities including the defending champions University of Pretoria (TUKS) and the North West University (PUKKE) who came in second and third position respectively.

The athletes are one of the selected medallists who received medals at the championships.

UJ all the way!