South Africa, Africa, and eventually the world’s leading jumping academy.

This is the aim of the Kovsie Jumping Academy, says head coach, Emmarie Fouché. She set the bar high for what they would like to achieve. The academy was brought into life on the Bloemfontein Campus at the beginning of the year and already produced the goods for Fouché to dream big.

The long-jump facilities at Pellies Park have also been upgraded to meet the standards of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

“The academy was the vision of Prof Nicky Morgan (then Vice-Rector: Operations) and DB Prinsloo, Director of KovsieSport. I headed a jumping academy at the University of Johannesburg and the university approached me to bring it to Kovsies,” said Fouché, an IAAF-qualified coach.

In Johannesburg, she coached most of the country’s best jumpers such as Zarck Visser, Khotso Mokoena, Lynique Beneke, and Andrea Dalle Ave. Beneke, the national women’s long-jump champion since 2013, followed her coach to Bloemfontein and participated for Kovsies in 2018.

Lots of successes

Beneke is also the national student champion, while Peter Makgato (long jump) and Sefako Mokhosoa (triple jump) both took silver at the University Sports South Africa championships. At the Confederation of University and Colleges Sports Associations Games, all three Kovsies medalled – Beneke and Mokhosoa with gold and Makgato with silver.

Furthermore, we have Michaéla Wright, who is both the South African and African U20 champion in the long jump, and Paralympian Juanelie Meijer, who ended fourth at the Commonwealth Games.

According to Fouché, Beneke and Makgato act as assistant coaches at the academy with the aim of taking over one day.