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27 July 2018
Tennis the bright spark at USSA
The Kovsie Tennis team was crowned as USSA victors for the eighth consecutive time at the recent University Sports South Africa tournament

Even though some Kovsie sport codes came close, it was eventually only the tennis team who were able to grab hold of a gold medal at the various USSA (University Sport South Africa) tournaments taking place in numerous cities across the country during the student winter holidays.

It was the eighth consecutive USSA crown for the Kovsie tennis team. They won all their matches with ease and even the final against Tuks was a one-way affair, winning eight games to one.

The other sport that came close to winning their tournament, was the netball girls. They came unstacked in the final, losing 30-48 to Tuks. It was the first time since 1998 that Kovsies hosted the USSA netball tournament.

The Kovsie female hockey team claimed third spot and the men, playing in the B section, ended second. They only lost once (against the University of KwaZulu-Natal by a single goal), which denied them promotion to the A section.

The Shimlas nearly obtained bronze, but a penalty try for Wits in the closing minutes cost them in the play-off match for 3rd/4th position.

Both the men and women’s football teams ended sixth, but more importantly, the women qualified for the 2019 Varsity football competition. The women improved by two positions and the men by four places from the 2017 tournament.

The table tennis team didn’t have an official final position. They lost in the quarterfinals.

The basketball men ended ninth and the women tenth, improving by ten and six places respectively.

The volleyball men’s team finished in 11th position and the women took 15th spot.

News Archive

New Division of Virology to deliver crucial services for HIV diagnosis and resistance testing
2015-12-14

The establishment of a Division of Virology within the Department of Medical Microbiology, under the joint auspices of the UFS and the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), reflects the continued growth within Virology.  Dr Dominique Goedhals, Head of the Division, says the division will also provide training of undergraduate medical students, medical technologists and technicians, and registrars.

The newly established Division of Virology at the University of the Free State will be one of only five laboratories in the country to be involved in crucial diagnostic and testing services for HIV viral load monitoring, early infant diagnosis, and HIV resistance testing.

The Virology Diagnostic Laboratory serves as the reference laboratory for all HIV National Priority Programme samples for the Free State and Northern Cape provinces.

Medical staff at the laboratory will provide a 24-hour consultative service, as well as outreach programmes to district laboratories in the Free State and Northern Cape where pathologists are not available. 

Dr Dominique Goedhals, Head of the Division of Virology, says this division, under the joint auspices of the UFS and the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), reflects the continued growth within Virology.

The division will not only deliver this critical diagnostic service, but will also focus on training and teaching, as well as research.

Teaching and training activities include teaching of undergraduate medical students, medical technologists and technicians, and registrars.  The postgraduate science programme has a high output of honours, master’s and doctoral students in Virology.  The intern medical scientist programme is also active, with five interns having successfully submitted their portfolios since the programme was implemented in 2010.

Research activities under the Head of Research, Prof Felicity Burt, have also expanded and continue to show increases in publication output and acquisition of grant funding.  Established research groups within the Division of Virology focus on vector-borne and zoonotic viruses, human papilloma viruses (HPV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), as well as work with a number of international collaborators.


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