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12 July 2019 | Story Ruan Bruwer | Photo Varsity Sport
Antonet Louw
Antonet Louw, star hockey player, was the leading goal scorer at the University Sport South Africa championship in Stellenbosch. She achieved the same milestone in the Varsity hockey competition in May.
Improvement by the Shimlas, men’s hockey, volleyball (men and women), and basketball teams (men and women), and stumbling over the final two hurdles by the netball and women’s hockey teams.

This, in a nutshell, was the Kovsie story at this year’s University Sport South Africa (USSA) championships that took place across the country in the first week of July.

The Shimlas improved from fourth to third place in 2019, winning two of their three encounters. The hockey men, who finished second in last year’s B Section, were unbeaten in 2019, earning them an automatic promotion to the A Section in 2020.

The men’s volleyball team improved from 11th to 6th place, the women from 15th to 5th, and the basketball men (6th) and women (9th) improved by three and one positions respectively.

For a large part of the netball and women’s hockey tournaments, it looked very promising that one or both of the UFS teams could go all the way.

The netball team has won all five of their group matches, including victories over the North-West University (NWU) and Tuks, against whom they lost in the play-off fixtures on the final two days.

Another milestone by Antonet
This was also the case with the women’s hockey team. They recorded wins in all three of their group matches, including a 3-0 win over the Maties, who were the Varsity hockey runners-up in May. In the semi-final, Tuks prevailed by 4-0 and in the play-off for third/fourth place, the Maties triumphed by 3-1.

Antonet Louw, the leading goal scorer during the Varsity hockey tournament, again contributed the most goals (five in five matches).

In the fencing championship, Relebohile Pule (women’s epee) and Johanco Viljoen (men’s sabre) both returned with bronze medals.

Ewald van Zyl (elite male kumite +84 kg, gold medal) and Diena Benade (elite female kumite -68 kg, gold) were the two standouts in karate.

News Archive

UFS awards its innovative thinkers
2009-11-18

Here are, from the left: Prof. Van Wyk with first-prize winners Precious Setlaba and Themba Motsoeneng and Prof. Muriel Meiring, the students’ promoter.
Photo: Stephen Collett


The University of the Free State (UFS) recently announced the winners of the Innovation Fund Competition. This national competition, which is organised by the Department of Science and Technology aims to promote entrepreneurship through the commercialisation of the innovative ideas of young entrepreneurs.

Every participating educational institution first has an in-house competition in which a total prize money of R100 000 is at stake. At the UFS 14 business plans from students were received and evaluated by six external adjudicators. The three winners now have to take part in Phase II of the competition where 60 competitors from 20 universities will compete. The winners of the National Competition will receive prizes of up to R300 000. This money must be used for the development of the innovative idea with which the prize was won.

The first prize in the UFS’s Innovation Fund Competition of R50 000 was won by Themba Motsoeneng and Precious Setlaba from the Department of Haematology for the development of low-cost diagnostic assays for thrombotic diseases and bleeding disorders with the aim of supplying these test assays at a much lower cost to pathology laboratories all over the country. “This exciting idea appealed to many of the judges, especially because it can contribute to low cost health care in the country,” says Prof. Gerrit van Wyk, organiser of the Innovation Fund Competition at the UFS. The second prize of R30 000 was won by Charl Jaftha, MSc student in Physics. He has developed a low-cost hearing aid the size of a cigarette box. It contains a microphone and electronics to amplify the sound. The third prize of R20 000 was won by Adriaan Taylor and Jaco Brink, both MBA students. They designed a two-in-one lawnmower that would enable the average gardener with a bulky garden to shred the garden refuse and recycle it through composting or disposal through the normal disposal system. “One judge called this a novel use of existing technology,” says Prof. Van Wyk.
 

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