Totius Primary School - athletics

Totius Primary School in Vanderbijlpark (Gauteng, South Africa), recently held a athletics meeting (January 25) and although these athletes are still young, there proved to be nothing wrong with their fighting spirits and top performances were recorded. Here is some action photographs.

Carel de Wet Technical High School Athletics

Well, it is athletics season and Carel de Wet Technical High School in Vanderbijlpark, kicked off with a home meeting recently. Not even heavy rain the day before could dampen the spirits. Here are two action photos of athletes of Suiderlig High School in action.

Sasolburg High School interhouse athletics

Spirits were high at Sasolburg High School's annual interhouse athletics meeting held at the DP de Villiers Stadium recently. This meeting is mainly used to identify which athletes will represent the school in future meetings this season. Thus, some competed just for the fun of it while others gave their best. These few pictures display the fun and serious side.

Time 4 school at Totius Primary

Time 4 School

Its another year and for many youngsters it meant going to school for the first time. As a journalist and photographer I have visited primary schools on that testing first day, and usually walked away with several photographs of crying kids. This has over the past few years become less and less obvious. Only a very few still find it hard to let mommy go home (and lets not talk about the crying mother for now). This year I visited the Totius Primary School in Vanderbijlpark (Gauteng, South Africa). This is a Afrikaans medium school.
I was greeted by many happy and smiling little faces. They weren't even camera shy. I believe this change is mainly due to the Grade R classes for pre-schoolers that was implemented a few years back. Now the little ones are more familiar with surroundings and the "big" school setup.
No tears to show you, just happy faces.

Fewer athletes at annual inter high schools athletics

This year, for the first time in 37 years, the rules of the Vereeniging Inter High Schools Athletics Meeting (Gauteng, South Africa) has changed, denying almost 400 athletes the opportunity to participate.
This year only one athlete per school will be allowed to compete in events such as the 100m, 200m, 400m and hurdles events. In past years two athletes per school per event could compete.
This new rule cam into effect as four of the seven participating schools outvoted the other three opposing schools. The three schools against the new rule are: Vereeniging Technical High School, Volkskool Heidelberg and the Vereeniging High School.
The four schools that brought about the change are: Dr. Malan High School, General Smuts High School, Overvaal High School and Three Rivers High School.
The reason for the change is apparently the fact that the meeting , which usually starts around 08:00 and ends just after 22:00, finishes way too late for some people.
Apparently this causes a safety and transport problem for some students. But these reasons just don't seem so worthy, if you take into account that this is one ONE meeting! Only ONE day you have to make other arrangement for transport.
Does this justify other talented athletes to be denied a chance to participate only because some students don't want to be there that late. The go home if you don't want to be there. Those that want to be there will make a plan on that ONE day!
South Africa competes at the Olympic Games and every time a South African secures a medal, we as fellow South Africans are very proud. But to bring back medals, athletes have to start young, train hard and be very disciplined.
How can we as a nation expect to perform on the same level as the rest of the world if we can't even get rid of little problems on ground level - our schools. School is after all the place were most young talent are identified.
This new rule at the Vereeniging Inter High Athletics seems to take away, rather than ad to this meeting ... and this meeting is considered a highlight on the local schools athletics calendar.
Just maybe this all boils down to the fact that the second best athlete of some schools are better than the best athlete of other schools. Makes you think what's really behind the new rule, doesn't it?