St Andrew’s take second at Hirsch

In one of their best Hirsch Shield performances since 2001, St Andrew’s College finished second overall in the U19 athletics event, which saw 16 schools from across the Eastern Cape taking part.

Moist conditions threatened to dominate proceedings during the morning session, but the weather cleared up nicely and athletes and spectators were treated to some excellent performances in the afternoon.

The athletes from St Andrew’s College, across all age groups, competed with determination and a desire to deliver only their very best. The U19 athletes in particular enjoyed a great deal of success on the day.

Grey High School hosted the Centenary Hirsch Shield, which is the oldest schools athletics event in the Country.

Grey were crowned Hirsch Shield winners for the first time since 1999, halting Queens College’s dominance over the meeting which saw them win the event for the past 15 years.

St Andrew’s took second place ahead of Queens College who had to settle for third place.

St Andrew’s shared the Mosenthal trophy for sprints with Queens.

Winning gold for St Andrew’s in the Hirsch Shield were Gareth De Vos (Pole Vault), Brad Landrey (800m) and Matthew Royle (100m). Kingswood College’s Master in Charge of Athletics, Zweli Mbenyana has been involved in the Hirsch Shield for 20 years and was bestowed the honour of handing out the U16 SF Edwards trophies.

In conjunction with the U19 Hirsch Shield were the Sammy Gunn Shield (U14) and SF Edwards (U16) sections.

Grey High also won the U14 section with Kingswood end- ing as runners up. Kingswood also won the Mike Bandy trophy for sprints in the U14 section. Kingswood College pupil Dwayne Pharo won the U14 100m in a new record time of 11.16 seconds. Dwayne also won the 200m and the hurdles event.

Framesby won the SF Edwards narrowly pipping Selborne and Hangklip.