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27 December 2021
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Story Jóhann Thormählen
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Photo Supplied
The Kovsie Annerie Dercksen is one of South Africa’s most promising youngsters and climbing the cricketing ladder.
She enjoyed every second of playing with some of her heroes and believes the exposure to international cricket will help her become a better player.
Annerie Dercksen is one of South Africa’s most promising youngsters and climbing the cricketing ladder.
Star from Beaufort West
This second-year Education student from the University of the Free State (UFS), who dreams of playing for the Momentum Proteas, represented the South African Emerging Women’s team three times in 2021.
The star from Beaufort West toured with the side to Bangladesh and also played against Zimbabwe and Thailand in One Day and T20 matches.
According to Dercksen, it is an incredible honour and privilege to be a part of a side.
She soaked up the experience and says everyone was willing to share their knowledge.
“I would have to say, sharing the field with some of my heroes and getting to work with some of the best coaches in the country are some of the highlights.”
She says each tour brought its own challenges and this helped her grow in the way she views and approaches the game.
“In Bangladesh we played against a well-established team in foreign conditions while facing a lot of spinners in spin friendly conditions. Personally, it was quite a challenge and I had to come back and work on some options, especially against spin.”
“Each tour brought its own challenges and this helped me grow in the way I view and approach the game.” - Annerie Dercksen
Coming through the ranks
The all-rounder has come through the ranks. She represented South-Western Districts at school level, played for the South African U19 side and is currently representing the Free State.
But Dercksen didn’t always dream cricket, especially not when playing ‘backyard’ cricket with her brother on the farm.
She didn’t even play for a team at school. “Until a boy from our primary school’s team got sick before a game. A teacher came to class and asked, ‘who can play cricket’, and I put up my hand.”
Sarah, our own champion
2008-11-05
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| Sarah Shannon at the Paralympic Games in Beijing |
Sarah Shannon, a second-year student in the Postgraduate Certificate in Education, has been involved in disability sport on national level for the past 12 years. Sarah has cerebral palsy.
In 1996 she participated at the South African National Championships for the physically disabled for the first time, entering for several sporting codes and winning five gold medals. In swimming she participates in the S3 class together with other swimmers that have comparable abilities to hers.
In 1997 she decided to focus on swimming competitively. She participated in her first national championships for swimming that year. After that (1998) she represented South Africa on international level at the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) Swimming World Championships in New Zealand where she ended 4th in the 50m backstroke and 7th in both the 50m and 100m freestyle in her class.
In 1999 she represented South Africa in Johannesburg at the 7th All Africa Games and won a silver medal for the 50m freestyle and a bronze medal for the 100m freestyle.
In 2000 she was part of the South African team at the Sydney Paralympic Games where she reached the finals and finished 7th in the 50m backstroke and 8th in the 50m freestyle. Northern-KwaZulu-Natal also awarded her the Junior Sportswoman of the Year award in 2001. In 2002 she participated at the South African Senior National swimming championships for KwaZulu-Natal in the multi-disability category.
In 2005 she completed the Midmar Mile. She also represented South Africa at the world championships for athletes with cerebral palsy in Boston in the United States of America. She won two gold medals for respectively the 50m freestyle and the 50m backstroke and two silver medals in the 100m and 200m freestyle. She was also nominated to represent South Africa as athlete’s representative on the world committee of CPISRA (Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association). In this year Sarah also received the KwaZulu-Natal Premier’s Sportswoman with a disability award of the year.
In 2006 she qualified for the IPC world championships but could not attend.
In 2007 she represented South Africa once more at the Visa Paralympic World Cup in Manchester in the United Kingdom where she broke the South African record in the 50m backstroke, finishing 7th in the 50m freestyle and 6th in the 50m backstroke.
She was also part of the very successful Team South Africa to the Paralympic Games in Beijing. She reached the finals in both the 50m backstroke and 50m freestyle. She finished 7th in the 50m freestyle and 6th in the 50m backstroke in personal best times for both events. She has been participating in the able bodied South African National Swimming Championships since 2002. She is currently ranked 2nd in the world for short course items and 11th for the long course items. She is truly our best swimmer in the S3 class.