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02 November 2020 | Story Ruan Bruwer | Photo Varsity Sports
Lefébre Rademan, the country’s top student netball player in 2019, has been snatched up by English netball club London Pulse to play in England in 2021.

 

Attempting to become an even better netballer, former Kovsies netball captain Lefébre Rademan decided to jet off to England to play in their league.

Rademan was contracted by London Pulse to compete in the European Superleague in 2021. She will be the fourth Kovsie after Maryka Holtzhausen (2015 and 2018-2019), Karla Pretorius (2016), and Khanyisa Chawane (2020) to play in the league.

Rademan said it was an easy decision, even though it will be far and a long time away from home. The league runs from February to July, with a pre-season in December. She will continue with her master’s degree at the University of the Free State next year.

“I am not going to play netball forever and such an opportunity doesn’t come often. Having competed against England, New Zealand, and Jamaica earlier in the year, I realised they play at a much higher level and if I want to improve and become the best, I would also need to move to a next level.”

“As a goal attack, having Protea teammate Sigi Burger (goal shooter) at the same club, will be an advantage for both of us and for the Proteas as a combination.”

Rademan has had a great past two years, making her Protea debut (12 tests in total) and receiving a number of accolades, such as the Varsity Netball Player of the Tournament in 2019.

In the Telkom Netball League in October, captaining the Free State Crinums, she was named Shooter of the Tournament. She was Player of the Match twice. Her goal average of 88,1% was the highest in the competition.

“Last year was such a good year for me personally, but that remains in the past. You can’t become complacent. I want to keep working hard and become a much better player,” Rademan said.

 

News Archive

Researchers reach out across continents in giraffe research
2015-09-18

Dr Francois Deacon and Prof Fred Bercovitch
busy with field work.

Researcher Dr Francois Deacon from the Department of Animal, Wildlife, and Grassland Sciences at the University of the Free State is conducting research with renowned wildlife scientist, Prof Fred Bercovitch, from the Center for International Collaboration and Advanced Studies in Primatology, Kyoto University Primate Research Institute in Japan.

Dr Deacon’s ground-breaking research has attracted international media attention. Together with Prof Nico Smit, he equipped giraffes with GPS collars, and conducted research based on this initiative. “Satellite tracking is proving to be extremely valuable in the wildlife environment. The unit is based on a mobile global two-way communication platform, utilising two-way data satellite communication, complete with GPS systems.”

Prof Bercovitch was involved with GPS tracking from elephants to koala bears.

Some of the highlights of the joint research on giraffes by Dr Deacon and Prof Bercovitch focus on:
 
• How much time do certain giraffes spend with, and away from, one another
• How do the home ranges of herds and individual giraffe overlap
• Do genetically-related animals spend more time together than non-genetically-related animals
• How much time do the young bulls, adult bulls, and dominant bulls spend with cow herds
• Herd interactions and social behaviours of giraffe
• The role of the veld and diet on animal behaviour and distribution

 

Their research article, “Gazing at a giraffe gyroscope: Where are we going?”, which was published in the African Journal of Ecology, assesses recent research by exploring five primary questions:

- How many (sub) species of giraffe exist?
- What are the dynamics of giraffe herds?
- How do giraffe communicate?
- What is the role of sexual selection in giraffe reproduction?
- How many giraffe reside in Africa?

They conclude this article by emphasising that the most essential issue is to develop conservation management plans that will save a wonderful species from extinction, and which will also enable scientists to conduct additional research aimed at answering their five questions.

In addition, they are working together on a grand proposal to get National Geographic to cover their work.

 

 

 

 

 

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