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26 September 2019 | Story Ruan Bruwer | Photo Supplied
Kovsies Women Cross-Country Team Marné Mentz, Vicky Oelofse, and Channah du Plessis
Marné Mentz, Ts’epang Sello, and Tyler Beling played a huge role in Kovsies' cross-country champions win.

After coming within a whisker of claiming the title in 2018, the University of the Free State’s (UFS) runners ensured that the University Sports South Africa (USSA) cross-country trophy comes to Bloemfontein in 2019.

Kovsies are the new national student cross-country champions after they (men and women combined) won the USSA Championships in Nelspruit on Saturday, 21 September. Kovsies and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) both finished with three gold medals at the same event in 2018. UJ finished with nine overall medals compared to the eight (three gold, two silver, and three silver) of the UFS, who had to settle for second place. In 2017, the UFS finished third.

The Kovsie women’s team played a huge role in carrying the team to the top of the medal table, winning four golds. They won the 4 km and 10 km women’s team competitions as well as the road relay. The top three places by the runners of a university determined the team winner.

Marné Mentz UFS Cross-Country

Marné Mentz’s gold medal in the four-kilometre race at the
USSA Cross Country Championships helped the Kovsies
win the overall title.

Marné Mentz (first), Vicky Oelofse (fifth), and Channah du Plessis (sixth) dominated the four-kilometre race. In the 10 km, Ts’epang Sello (third), Tyler Beling (sixth), and Lizandré Mulder (seventh) did enough to ensure another gold for the Free State students. Mentz, Sello, and Beling jointly took first place in the road relay.

In the 10-km race for men, Kovsies came fifth, with Victor Makhabesela the best performer (finishing ninth). Pakiso Mthembu, one of the contenders for the medal who won the silver medal at the National Cross Country Championships two weeks before, had to withdraw after 7 km in the race due to an injury.

News Archive

UFS badminton player in Bulgaria for training camp
2006-09-11

ROELOF DEDNAM (21), a B Acc student in his third year at the University of the Free State, left for Sofia, Bulgaria, to join the International Badminton Federation's (IBF) East-European training centre for three weeks.
 
Dednam was invited with Robert Abrahams (WP), the South African  junior champion, to attend the international training camp.  Sixteen international players from different countries take part in such a camp. The camp normally lasts two months, but they will return after three weeks in time for the national championships.

Since 2004, he and his brother Chris have been the national doubles champions, as well as the SA International champions for three years in succession.

He is a regular member of the national team, which he first made at the age of 18.  He is the holder of five under-15, five under-17, five under-19 and two senior national titles. He also won four gold and two silver medals at the All Africa Junior Championships in 2001 and 2003.

Dednam is generally regarded as the best doubles player in Africa, but is also rated third in South Africa as a singles player, while he again made his mark this year as a mixed doubles player.

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