Athletes to step into the summer games spotlight
EASTERN Cape athletes will be in action this week as they battle it out in the Sports Summer Games across Johannesburg over the next few days.
The national championships sees all nine provinces competing for top honours at the games across a multitude of sporting codes.
“Choose sport, choose a healthy life, choose the act of life and choose unity,” general manager for sport and recreation said.
Sedras wished the team well ahead of their departure for the tournament this past weekend and she encouraged the young athletes to deliver top performances, so they could deliver the best results during the competition.
In all, the Eastern Cape has sent close to 450 athletes to take part in the tournament with some of the sports to be played being cricket, goalball, gymnastics (able-bodied and deaf), basketball (ablebodied Deidre Sedras and wheelchair), Kgati, rugby, softball, morabaraba and table tennis (able-body and deaf).
“A number of our teams and individuals are in line for top honours and can possibly finish as national champs,” DSRAC communications manager Andile Nduna said.
“We have very high hopes for our U14 wheelchair basketball team and also one of our players with a disability, Bongani Ngxishe, who is in the table tennis team, we are expecting big things from him.”
In the previous school sports championships in July, Team EC brought home 22 medals, a tally they aim to improve on this time around.
“I think it is a very strong team that we have sent to compete at the games,” said Nduna.
“We are confident that we will bring home many medals and we believe we will bring more medals back than the winter team did.”
The aim of the school sports national championships is to produce future world-class sports stars, and revive the fading sporting spirit and culture among young people.
It is through these championships, that aspiring school pupils of South Africa from all nine provinces are afforded an opportunity to participate in a multi-coded event and to showcase their talent and sporting skills.
“We are hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2022 and for us we are hoping that these types of tournaments will help our young sport stars grow and improve and we hope that some of these athletes will be in the SA team when we host those games,” said Nduna.
“We feel that they have got what it takes and we just have to help get them up to that level.”