Local sport festival is drawing the masses
FROM three-year-old children strutting their stuff to senior citizens competing at the ripe old age of 80, the Phoenix Sports Festival (PSF) is quickly evolving into one of the country’s biggest and most inclusive events of its kind.
The third edition of the event came to a roaring close last weekend with over 10 000 participants competing across eleven codes of sport. After month-long preliminary rounds, participants battled it out for overall honours in the codes of football, volleyball, netball, chess, karate, athletics, debating, crèche sports, golden games and cricket.
Charmaine Naidoo, of the Phoenix Community Centre, hosts of the PSF said it was an event which continues to exceed expectations and has done extremely well again.
“It is a legacy event which we want to grow to become a mainstay on the calendar, which can also be used in other communities,” she said. Football, which catered for most of the athletes, saw 8500 players compete across four senior categories and seven junior age divisions.
Durban Boyz beat Polar City 4-3 on penalties in extra time after the game ended with a 1-1 draw, to claim the Premier League title. The pick of the action, however, came in the over-35 final between Stonebridge and Foresthaven, which brought the festival to its climax.
It was a fierce battle throughout but Stonebridge prevailed 3-2, thanks to a late goal, in front of hundreds of fans at the Rydalvale Grounds.“it was end to end action with players fighting all the way,” said Safa Phoenix president Desmond Ganesan. “Our footballers embodied the true spirit of the festival. It is a great initiative and we are sure that it will keep growing in the coming years,” he added.
The code of chess was dominated by Brookdale Primary in the junior categories, as Joshua Veerasamy and Nicholas Govender won the Under-11 and 13 titles respectively. Meanwhile, Northmead Secondary made a clean sweep of the senior honours with Tychuis Naidoo (U15) and Sazi Mthembu (U17) doing their schools proud.
Palmview beat Brailsford in an action-packed boys volleyball final.
Dube Ghandi won both the junior and senior netball competition, sweeping aside Seven Stars and Loxion Girls.
In addition, the PSF hosted its first 10km road race to be sanctioned by KZN Athletics Association. The 10km Mandela Challenge Road race was convened by Phoenix Athletics Club under the watchful eye of club chairman Danny Chetty.
At the end of the festival the organising committee launched the Phoenix Community Centre Sports Trust to assist with developing sport beyond the festival.
“It is a body that will facilitate the funding process for talent and help them develop a career in sport, this is the legacy project which will help to grow the PSF,” Naidoo added.