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07 March 2018
Photo Supplied
Ts’epang Sello, one of the Kovsie contenders for a medal at Friday’s Varsity athletics meeting.
Ts’epang Sello, one of the Kovsie contenders
for a medal at Friday’s Varsity athletics meeting.
Photo: Supplied
The University of the Free State will hope to start developing their next Wayde van Niekerk when the first Varsity athletics meeting takes place on Friday at the Tuks Athletics Stadium in Pretoria.
The second meeting is on 23 March, also in Pretoria.
Thirteen members (five men and eight women) of the Kovsie team of 25 are still under the age of 21.
The hope for medals among the men would be on Sefako Mokhosoa (triple jump), Hendrik Maartens, and Tsebo Matsoso (both 200 m). Mokhosoa, who represented South Africa last year at the Southern Region Championships, is in red-hot form and achieved a personal best of 16.13 m at the Motheo/Xhariep meeting two weeks ago. This is currently the third best distance in the country for 2018.
Maartens would like to go one step further. In last year’s final Varsity meeting, he finished second in 20.62. Great things are expected of Matsoso, a first-year student who competed at the African Junior Championship in 2017. Last year, he was one of the top athletes at school level by winning the SA title in a time of 21.14.
Ts’epang Sello (800 m) and Elmé Smith (100 m and 200 m) will lead the charge for the women. Sello already came close to her personal best (2:09.8) this year, while Smith has also been running fast times. Her best this year was 11.88 (100 m) and 24.53 (200 m).
Tyler Beling (1 500 m) is another first-year student who is showing great potential. She obtained a fourth position at last weekend’s CAA Southern Region Cross-country Championships. Maryke Brits (100 m hurdles and long jump) is a possible medallist, despite running her first event for the year on Wednesday night.
The meeting starts at 17:15 and will be broadcast on SuperSport 5.
International success for UFS Professor in Japan
2016-12-07
Prof Hussein Solomon from the UFS was recently
appointed as Visiting Professor at Osaka University
in Japan.
Photo: Charl Devenish
He has been involved with the Osaka University for several years, but Prof Hussein Solomon’s recent appointment as Visiting Professor will allow the University of the Free State (UFS) and Osaka to work on long-term issues.
Kovsie academics hold their own internationally
His appointment at the university in Japan came as no surprise as he is a regular teacher to students and leader of seminars to staff. According to Prof Solomon, Senior Professor at the Department of Political Studies and Governance at the UFS, Kovsie academics can hold their own internationally.
The Faculty of Humanities has a memorandum of understanding with Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), which consists of Political Science, Public Administration, Law and Economics at Osaka University.
Enhancing the universities’ relationship
“I have been involved with Osaka since 2007, initially with their Global Collaboration Center (GLOCOL), focusing on conflict resolution, and then later with OSIPP.”
Although Prof Solomon has been working with Osaka for a while, his appointment will enhance the relationship between the universities.
“We have been cooperating with Osaka for some time, hosting annual conferences, engaging in staff and student exchanges, as well as the establishment of the international centre. This appointment allows us to work on longer-term issues allowing us to chase funding together and deepen our existing linkages,” he says.
UFS doctoral students being jointly supervised
Prof Solomon says that he would like to see the doctoral students from the UFS being jointly supervised. “We already have one of our doctorial students, Alta Vermeulen, who is being co-supervised between myself and Prof Virgil Hawkins from Osaka,” he says.
Prof Solomon was also recently appointed to the board of flagship journal, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).