1st Biathlon of 2023

A beautiful day dawned as the Union learners travelled by bus to Somerset East to join our neighbouring district as Gill College hosted their first ๐—•๐—œ๐—”๐—ง๐—›๐—Ÿ๐—ข๐—ก on Saturday, 21 January.

๐˜ž๐˜ฆ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฆ๐˜น๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜บ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ข ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฎ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง 14 ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ต ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜จ๐˜ถ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ. ๐˜๐˜ต ๐˜ธ๐˜ข๐˜ด ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜ฆ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต ๐˜ข๐˜ด ๐˜ช๐˜ต ๐˜ธ๐˜ข๐˜ด ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ง๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ญ ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฌ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜Œ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜—๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ท๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜ช๐˜ข๐˜ญ ๐˜Š๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ฑ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜–๐˜ถ๐˜ฅ๐˜ด๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜๐˜ฆ๐˜ฃ๐˜ณ๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜บ.

Each athlete performed well on the well-maintained grass track with a number of personal bests (PB’s) being recorded. Our two new boys, Tafadzwa and Benjamin Munzvenga were thrown into the deep end but gamely competed, while making new friends along the way.

The swim brought ๐—–๐—›๐—”๐—Ÿ๐—Ÿ๐—˜๐—ก๐—š๐—˜๐—ฆ of its own with the pool being 33 yards (30m), however, the turns and rope finish did not daunt our team as they swam enthusiastically throughout. Ben Lemke achieved a PB in his swim, which placed him first in his age category.

The u.11 girls did exceptionally well with Taylor Jacobs and Klara van Jaarsveld coming 1st and 2nd respectively. This is a ๐—š๐—ฅ๐—˜๐—”๐—ง ๐—”๐—–๐—›๐—œ๐—˜๐—ฉ๐—˜๐— ๐—˜๐—ก๐—ง for Klara who has battled this season with injury (broken arm!) and illness.

The ๐—›๐—˜๐—ฅ๐—ข๐—˜๐—ฆ of the day were Onika Jantjies and Luvela Makaula who bravely swam 100m for the first time! They displayed such grit as they faced their fear of swimming this distance and completed their swim wreathed in smiles.

Biathlon changes young people’s lives by giving them the confidence to achieve small milestones and build upon that by improving their times at the following event. This is invaluable for building self-esteem and ultimately confident, well-rounded individuals.

๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐˜€๐—ผ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ธ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—จ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ฟ ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐˜๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฑ, ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ฟ ๐—ต๐˜‚๐—บ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜ ๐—ผ๐—ณ๐—ณ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฑ. ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜๐˜€ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ฟ ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐˜€ ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ถ๐—ฟ ๐˜€๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—น ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ฆ๐—ฎ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜†