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01 March 2019 | Story Ruan Bruwer
Ruben Kruger
Ruben Kruger, one of the four Kovsie team members who helped his side to the second place at the national tennis club championship.

The impressive tennis team of the University of the Free State, the national student title holders, came very close to also being crowned as the national club champions on Monday (25 February 2019).

The team from the University of the Free State lost to Marks Park in the final of the Top guns national club tournament at Sun City by two games to one. Matches consisted of men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles, with optional rotation at the end of each set.

The team members from the UFS were Arne Nel, Ruben Kruger, Lienke de Kock, and Ester de Kock.

In the finals, the UFS won their one match in the mixed doubles thanks to the double pair of De Kock (Lienke) and Kruger.  

In the second version of the tournament 18 of the best clubs, including all the provincial tennis champs, competed for the honours as national club champions. The students’ second spot was an improvement on the fourth position the team achieved last year. That team also included Nel and De Kock. Last year they also lost to Marks Park, on that occasion in the play-offs for the third position.

On Saturday and Sunday, the UFS defeated both Aces (Limpopo) and Old Mutual (Western Cape) by 3-0 but lost to Brighton from KwaZulu-Natal in die final round-robin match.

In the semi-finals they were too strong for Kuils River of the Western Cape, winning by 2-0.

The team received prize money of R10 000 as runners-up plus R10 000 to be shared among the players.

News Archive

A silver for Wayde van Niekerk at Commonwealth Games
2014-08-04

 

Wayde van Niekerk (far right) - our Kovsie hero at Commonwealth Games
Photo: Getty images
UFS athlete Wayde van Niekerk proved himself as a world-class contender yet again. He grabbed silver in the 400 m sprint at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Wednesday 30 July 2014.

Van Niekerk, who achieved a time of 44.68 sec in this race, took the lead at the first bend and held onto this position through the back straight before Kirani James of Granada pulled away over the final 150 m.

Lalonde Gordon of Trinidad and Tobago came third with a time of 44.78 sec.

This Commonwealth silver medal sees the Bloemfontein athlete’s magnificent year come full circle. Earlier this year, Van Niekerk broke the 15-year-old national record at the Diamond League meeting in New York with a time of 44.38 seconds.

Another star from the Free State, former Kovsie Kate Roberts, who took part in the mixed triathlon relay at the Commonwealth, also pocketed a silver medal. Her team mates were Richard Murray, Henri Schoeman and Gillian Sanders.

In addition, Neil Powell – Shimla Rugby alumnus from 2001 – played a central part in obtaining a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. Powell is the coach of the Springbok 7s team that placed first at the Games in July 2014. 
 
On a more local level, Kovsie alumnus and SA athlete, Johan Cronje, was nominated for the Sportsperson of the Year. You can vote for him by sending ‘SPORT 4’ via sms to 43043.


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