Category: Biathlon

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 𝗕𝗜𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗟𝗢𝗡 on Saturday, 21 January.

𝘞𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘰𝘧 14 𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘰𝘯. 𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘖𝘶𝘥𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘍𝘦𝘣𝘳𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺.

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 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗦 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 𝗚𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗖𝗛𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧 for Klara who has battled this season with injury (broken arm!) and illness.

The 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗢𝗘𝗦 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.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝘀𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗱. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆

This weekend (19 October 2019) Eastern Province hosted an Inter-provincial event in which we competed against other biathletes from Southern Free-State, Border and Eden. While 8 of our learners were selected to compete for EP in this event, only 5 were available to participate on the day.  Despite our diminished numbers, Union was able to place a commendable 9^th out of the 19 schools represented at this event.

Although none of our girls managed to finish in the top three in their respective age-groups, every one of them improved on their previous bests in either, or both of the disciplines. Union is extremely proud of these athletes that continue to push themselves to achieve with every performance.  Well done, girls!

Six Union biathletes travelled through to Port Elizabeth on Saturday (7 September) to participate in the 2nd league event for the season. This outing saw us welcoming another 2 newcomers, Mack Rubidge and Elia Railton to the team. Jade Shires and Elia Railton are to be congratulated on a fine start to their season, while some of the boys have certainly left room for improvement.

We eagerly await the announcement of the EP team selections for the upcoming interprovincial event, to see if any of our athletes have managed to qualify on the back of one league event.

I would like to thank all the learners that were on the bus for being so willing and eager to get involved in helping change the tyre on the bus after an unfortunate blowout on the return journey.

Only three Union biathletes made the journey to Port Elizabeth to compete in the 1^st league event of the 2019/2020 season. Despite the very cold and blustery conditions, newcomers to the sport, Mecoli Vorster and Luc Railton competed for the first time and acquitted themselves well, while Brigette Oelofsen was sadly unable to complete the run due to a recurring knee injury. All three competitors did surprisingly well in the swim portion of the event, despite the long layoff over the winter season. They are looking forward to improving both their swim and run times in the next league event which is to be held this coming weekend.