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28 February 2019 | Story Ruan Bruwer | Photo Image SA
Wayde van Niekerk
Former UFS student Wayde van Niekerk, who still runs for the Kovsie Athletics Club, made his comeback after a long injury layoff.
Exactly 16 months and 16 days after seriously injuring his right knee, Wayde van Niekerk, the world and Olympic champion and record-holder in the 400 m, made a successful comeback to the track over the weekend.

His participation in the Free State Championship on Saturday (23 February 2019) was the former Kovsie sprinter’s first competitive race, which ended in a victory for the 26-year-old.

Van Niekerk won the 400 m in a time of 47,28 seconds. The former Marketing student still participates for the University of the Free State (UFS) Athletics Club.

According to his coach, Ans Botha, there is no immediate plans for a next race; this race only formed part of his training. They will be working towards the World Championships in September 2019, where he took gold in the 400 m at the previous two champs in 2017 and 2015. 

The international sprint sensation picked up medial and lateral tears of the meniscus, as well as a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) while participating in a celebrity touch-rugby match back in October 2017.

He underwent surgery in the United States, followed by six months of rehabilitation in Doha under the watchful eye of Dr Louis Holtzhausen, well-known sports medicine physician. Holtzhausen was previously the head of the University of the Free State’s Department of Sports and Exercise Medicine.

In second place in the 400 m on Saturday was Cornel Fredericks, a hurdles specialist. Fredericks, gold medallist in the 400 m hurdles at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, is now also training under Botha.

News Archive

Qwaqwa Campus launches transdisciplinary Afromontane Research Unit
2015-06-09

Dr Dipane Hlalele, Assistant Dean in the Faculty of Education on the Qwaqwa Campus; Dr Anofi Ashafa, Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences on the Qwaqwa Campus; Prof Corli Witthuhn, Vice-Rector: Research; Prof Sechaba Mahlomaholo, Dean in the Faculty of Education; Dr Geofrey Mukwada, Head of the Department of Geography; Dr Aliza le Roux, Head of the Department of Zoology and Entomology; Prof Prakash Naidoo, Campus Principal and Dr Elsa Crause, Academic Head on the Qwaqwa Campus.

The Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the Free State in the Eastern Free State boasts of one of the most beautiful and distinctive surroundings that will play a crucial role in fostering research in the under-researched area of the montane communities. This was revealed during the recent launch of the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU), the UFS flagship transdisciplinary research programme.

“This flagship programme has been in the making for about four years as our Qwaqwa Campus is set in a very interesting, unique, and mountainous place. The programme gained the momentum when the National Research Foundation (NRF) challenged each university to come up with their own single niche research area that would give them a unique research identity”, Prof Corli Witthuhn, Vice-Rector: Research, said during the launch.

”The Unit will develop the campus’s research capacity as we have already seen a huge increase in the research outputs by Qwaqwa staff. The campus already has seven scholars in the Vice-Chancellor's Prestige Scholars Programme (PSP), and there is notable excitement here. The Afromontane Research Unit will add to that research excitement as well”, she added.

Prof Witthuhn revealed that an application for the funding of the ARU had already been submitted to the NRF, and a positive response was awaited.

The PSP is an accelerated scholarship of junior UFS researchers in their first five years post-PhD. The prestige scholars participate in an intensive programme of support that includes international placement and intensive mentoring.

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