Paintballer in SA team
PORT Elizabeth paintball star Dean Strydom has broken through the ranks to be the only Eastern Cape player to make the South African men’s team.
Strydom, 18, will attend the Millennium European Paintball Series with the SA team in Paris from September 12-20.
Strydom attends Hill College and has been paintballing for six years. He is thrilled to have made the team.
“I’m really excited by the opportunity to play nationally, especially doing something that I love,” Strydom said.
Paintball is contested in a five-man format.
The goal is to shoot out the opposition and attain the opponents’ flag in their base.
Strydom started playing the game for recreation before moving on to competing in events in the metro, and eventually around South Africa.
“I started out locally but now I’ve travelled all around the country competing,” he said. “I won my first national event, which happened to be my third event.”
He competed in his first international tournament in Malaysia earlier this year against a team from Australia.
The team’s first training session will be held in Johannesburg, where they will have a week-long camp.
From there the team will fly to Dubai and then head to Paris, where they will contest their first event.