Khunou and Erasmus on top of the inaugural Curro Podium
Alicia Khunou (Menlopark) and Ashley Erasmus (Hoërskool Nelspruit) were the two stars during the inaugural Curro Podium athletics meeting held at the Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria.
Both girls produced two performances each where they accumulated the maximum amount of points (1000 points). Both athletes participated in the shot put and discus events. Erasmus in the u19 age group and Khunou in the u17 age group.
Khunou walked away with the accolade for being the top senior girls performer in the field. She won the gold in the discus for girls u17 with an excellent attempt of 50.18m.
She did receive some good competition from Chris-Marie Nel (Paarl Gimnasium) who took the silver medal with an attempt op 45.33m. It meant 973 points on the ASA point system.
Logan Nienaber (HTS Middelburg) was third with an attempt of 45.02m which also gave her a more than respectable 968 points for the performance.
Khunou won the shot put with an attempt of 17.34m. It is close to the South African Schools’record of Dané Roets (Noordheuwel) of 17.58m which was set in 2019.
The SA Schools’ record could however only be broken at the annual SA Schools Championship.
This event is without a doubt also Nel’s (16.81) favourite as she just missed out on recording a full 1 000 points. Mignon la Grange (Randburg) bagged the bronze medal when she made the weight land at 15.92m with her best attempt.
Erasmus let it rip in the discus for girls u19 as her best attempt landed at 50.89m for the first time. Her closest competitor was Amari van Niekerk of Monument who bagged 965 points with her attempt of 47.19m.
In the shot put for girls u19 Erasmus’ performance of 16.54m would have crushed the SA Schools’ record of 16.32m by Meike Strydom (Outeniqua). Strydom set the record back in 2018.
Zonica Lindeque (Curro Podium Invitation) who had to be content with the silver medal also achieved a full 1 000 points thanks to an attempt of 15.65m. Monnas’ Van Niekerk (12.85m) bagged the bronze medal.
Lindeque wrote matric at Hoërskool Randburg last year and broke the SA Junior record (u19) last year. Just for interest sake she also achieved six distinctions during last year’s matric exams.
Curro Windhoek Gimnasium’s Marike Weitz performance’s in the discus and shot put for girls u15 made her the best performing field athlete in her age group. She won the discus with an attempt of 41.41m, while also placing second in the shot put with an attempt of 13.97m.
The form of Garsfontein’s Mia Janse van Rensburg is without a doubt picking up as she won the high jump for girls u17. She won the event as she cleared 1.73m
Janse van Rensburg represented South Africa’s senior team at the African Championship last year in Mauritius while still only 15 year’s old.
The best senior track athlete was Coleen Scheepers (Menlopark) who won the 400m (54.30) and came second in the 200m (24.12) for girls u17.
In the hurdle events for girls u17 Tumi Ramokgopa (Prestige College) made sure that she took two gold medals home with her. She won the 400m-hurdles in a superb time of 1 minute and 0.18 seconds (1:00.18).
In the shorter hurdles (100mH) she rushed over the finish line in 13.66 seconds.
