Sports Shorts: Edition 6
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, 08 May 2012 10:16
- Written by Nicole Beale
Catch up on UCT's latest sports news and recaps with Sports Shorts.
Rowing
The UCT Rowing Club showed its prowess once again at the South African Championships Regatta held in East London on Saturday 28th April. After winning the sprints regatta three weeks before, the Ikeys rowers were ready to race the official Olympic distance of 2000m against some of the best rowers South Africa has to offer.
UCT’s squad of over 35 students raced at Senior Championship level and recorded some impressive results, like the men in B division who finished first in the pairs and coxed fours races, second in the single sculls and third in a hotly contested eights race.
The B division women also won their doubles and coxless fours races, to add to the A division bronze for the coxless fours and gold in the doubles race. The women’s A eight took gold convincingly, ahead of the favourites – a strong and experienced UJ eight.
The A division men achieved a silver medal in their pairs race, along with a gold in their coxless fours. The eights race came down to less than a second at the finish, which saw UCT just losing out to a strong TUKS outfit.
With the sprint season behind them, some of the Ikeys rowers are still hard at work in their attempts to race at the Student World Championships to be held in Russia this year representing UCT and South Africa. The rest of the UCT Rowing Club is preparing itself for Boat Races in early September in Port Alfred. Here’s to the UCT Sports Club of the Year keeping the Ikeys flag flying high.
Gymnastics
On the 22nd of April, UCT Gymnastics successfully hosted its first competition of the year at the Giants Gymnastics Club in Philippi. Stellenbosch was invited to join UCT for a fun competition, in the bid to show the beginners a more competitive environment and begin teaching them the routines for the upcoming USSA tournament.
The competitive stress was lightened by the encouraging team spirit from both sides, the crazy costumes people wore, and gender swaps – girls competing in male outfits and vice versa, with one male gymnast’s bright pink tutu causing a stir.
UCT received prizes for beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels, along with some fun prizes such as Best Fall (which, to everyone’s relief, did not result in injury) and Best Dressed Individual (aptly described as a Pirate-Dracula sporting an orange afro). The competition was a huge success and inspired the members to continue training hard in preparation for their more serious intervarsity tournament in July.
Fencing
Sunday the 22nd of April saw an exciting fence-off between UCT and Maties. It was the first time the UCT Fencing Club hosted such an event, organised by UCT's Alison MacLachlan and Stellies' Filip Sundstrom and held at UCT. It was set up to give some competitive experience to the beginner fencers before they head off to USSA, as well as to see which team is, in fact, better.
There were no individual events, but rather all team events which are set up like a relay where teams comprise of three fencers and each fencer fences about 3 bouts, traditionally to a score of 45.
The competition ran smoothly and impressed the visiting WP officials. Likely to become an annual event with a trophy engraved as ‘THE MUSKETEER CUP’, Maties won this year, but UCT are sure to claim it back next year.
Contributions from Jonathan van Rensburg, Kate Hawkridge and Alison MacLachlan