Grey win Hirsch Shield
Host school wins 100th Hirsch Shield event to end Queen’s reign
GREY High ended Queen’s College’s remarkable winning sequence in the Hirsch Shield athletics meeting when the Port Elizabeth host school triumphed for the first time since 1999 on Saturday. The Queenstown squad had been crowned champions for the past 15 years, but their magnificent run finally came to an end as they had to settle for third place.
In a close contest which saw the cream of the Eastern Cape’s athletes competing in track and field events, St Andrew’s College finished in second place.
To make Grey’s triumph even more memorable was that it came on the centenary of the longest-running meeting in Eastern Cape schools athletics.
Hundreds of schoolboys braved the wet conditions in the U14, U16 and U19 age groups to represent their schools for the individual medals and the shield trophies on offer.
Grey dominated the long-distance running and field events, picking up six gold medals in the U19 division.
While Queen’s and St Andrew’s shared the Mosenthal trophy for sprints, Grey walked away with the remaining categories. They took the Rogaly trophy for middle distances, the Badcock trophy for field events, the O’Hare Cup for jumps and the Olivier trophy for throws.
The gold medals came from Dylan Finlay in the 1 500m and 3 000m cross-country, Waqar Solaan (long jump), Bulumko Ntuthu (high jump) and Gerrick Rautenbach in the shot put and discus events.
Many former Hirsch Shield greats were in attendance to celebrate the occasion and to reminisce about former meetings.
Grey High sports administrator Neil Bielby said they were delighted to host the event, and with the final results.
“This year’s athletics meeting was a great success for us and we are very pleased with the results,” Bielby said.
“We couldn’t be more excited with winning the shield on its centenary meeting.”
In the U16 competition for the SF Edwards Shield, Port Elizabeth school Framesby emerged as the winners.
Their best performances came in the middle-distance events where they took the Doug Coghlan trophy.
Daniel Pienaar received the Joe Turner trophy for field events, with Selborne winning the Breytenbach trophy as the runners-up.
The Howard Kirby trophy for sprints went to Hangklip.
Grey also walked away with the overall victory in the U14 category, claiming the Sammy Gunn Shield. They did not, however, win any specific categories.
Kingswood claimed the Mike Bandey trophy for sprints, Framesby won the Leon Jacobs trophy for middle distance and Queen’s clinched the Louis du Plessis trophy for field events.