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06 March 2019 | Story Ruan Bruwer | Photo Varsity Sports
Tharina van der Walt
Tharina van der Walt, a first-year student, won the hammer-throw item at the first Varsity Athletics meeting in Stellenbosch on Friday – the only gold medal for the Kovsies.

Hammer thrower Tharina van der Walt was the bright spark for the University of the Free State (UFS) at the first Varsity Athletics meeting in Stellenbosch on Friday.

Van der Walt, who recently turned 19 and is one of three first-year students in the UFS team of 25 athletes, bagged the only gold medal for the Free State students. She won the hammer throw with a distance of 53,12 m.

The UFS ended in fourth place behind NWU (first), UJ (second), and Tuks (third).

Six athletes achieved second places. Both Sokwakana Mogwasi (100 m) and Ts’epang Sello (800 m) came within a whisker of claiming victory.  Mogwasi lost the 100 m by 00:04 seconds, but in the process improved her personal best from 11,89 to 11,58. Sello (2:08,47) was in the lead for most of the 800 m but was eventually defeated by Niene Muller of Tuks by less than half a second.

Mogwasi was also second in the 200 m with a fast 24,92. Other silver medals were obtained by Yolandi Stander in the discus (52,70 m), Peter Makgato in the long jump (7,66 m), and Marné Mentz in a very fast 1500 m race. Mentz (04:26,63) chopped more than five seconds off her previous best time of 4:32,00. Her time was the third fastest ever in the 1 500 m at Varsity Athletics.

There were three third places: Sefako Mokhosoa (15,47 – triple jump), Petrus Jacobs (14,55 – 110 m hurdles), and the women’s 4x100 m relay team (Mogwasi, Elsabé du Plessis, Joviale Mbisha, and Micháela Wright).

Four athletes just missed out on podium positions, achieving fourth places.

The second Varsity athletics meeting will take place in Potchefstroom on 15 March 2019.

News Archive

Medical team performs first hybrid procedure in the Free State
2014-12-08

The days when a heart operation meant hours in an operating theatre, with weeks and even months of convalescing, will soon be something of the past.

A team of cardiologists from the University of the Free State’s (UFS) Faculty of Health Sciences once again made medical history when they performed the first hybrid procedure in the Free State.

The Department of Paediatric Cardiology, in conjunction with the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, performed this very successful procedure on a 45-year-old woman from Kuruman.

During the procedure of 30 minutes, the patient’s thorax was opened up through a mini thoracotomy to operate on the beating heart.

“The patient received an artificial valve in 2011. Due to infection, a giant aneurism developed from the left ventricle, next to the aorta. Surgery would pose a very high risk to the patient. Furthermore, her health was such that it would contribute to problems during open-heart surgery,” explains Prof Stephen Brown, Head of the UFS’s Department of Paediatric Cardiology.

“After the heart was opened up through a mini thoracotomy, the paediatric cardiologists performed a direct puncture with a needle to the left ventricle cavity. A Special sheath was then placed in the left ventricle to bypass the catheters. Aided by highly advanced three-dimensional echocardiography and dihedral X-ray guidance, the opening to the aneurism, located directly below the artificial aorta valve, was identified and the aneurism cannulated.”
 
During the operation, a special coil, called a Nester Retractor, was used for the first time on a patient in South Africa to obtain stasis of extravasation and ensure the stability of devices in the aneurism.

“This is highly advanced and specialist work, as we had to make sure that the aneurism doesn’t rupture during manipulation and the devices had to be positioned in such a way that it doesn’t cause obstruction in valve function or the coronary artery. The surgical team was ready all the time to switch the patient to the heart-lung machine should something go wrong, but the procedure was very successful and the patient was discharged after a few days.”

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