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22 July 2021 | Story Ruan Bruwer | Photo Roger Sedres
Can Wayde van Niekerk repeat his amazing feat from the 2016 Olympics – now five years later – at the next Games?
It is a year later, but the Tokyo 2020 Olympics finally started on Friday, 23 July 2021. In team South Africa, a couple of the athletes and management, many of them medal contenders, call themselves Kovsies.

From 1 August, the progress of the country’s golden boy, Wayde van Niekerk, will be closely followed when he tries to hold on to the title as Olympic 400 m champion – he is still the world record holder (set at the 2016 Games). The final of the 400 m is scheduled for 5 August.

One of only five female athletes in the South African team, Gerda Steyn will compete in the marathon on 7 August. This is her first time at the Olympics. 

She is in red-hot form. In April, she broke a 25-year record in Italy when she ran the fastest-ever marathon by a South African woman, finishing in 2:25:28. She is the defending Comrades and Two Oceans champ.

Protea hockey player, Nicole Erasmus, will become a fourth-generation Olympic contender in her family. Her mother, Lynne Walraven (née Tasker) was a Zimbabwean swimmer, her great-uncle, Anthony Tasker, was a member of the South African rowing team, and her great-great-uncle, Frank Rushton, was a South African hurdles athlete. 

From 26 to 28 July, the South African sevens rugby team, with former Shimlas Chris Dry as a team member and Neil Powell as head coach, will aim to improve on their bronze medal achieved in 2016. Powell was also the head coach at the time, and another former Kovsie, Philip Snyman, captained the Blitzboks.

Kate Murray (formerly Roberts), head coach and high-performance manager of Triathlon South Africa, will act as the SA triathlon coach. She is a double Olympic participant, having raced for South Africa at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.

 


News Archive

Middle East activists speak about peace on the Bloemfontein Campus
2012-03-15

 

Bassem Eid (left) and Benjamin Pogrund discuss the situation in the Middle East.
Photo: Johan Roux
15 March 2012

Peace is a big word in the Middle East, particularly amongst Israelis and Palestinians. After years of conflict, people yearn for peace; they want an end to the killings and the uncertainty. The problem is that both sides are actively doing things that undermine the prospect of peace. There is also double talk, lies and evasion with each side pointing fingers. This was the word from Benjamin Pogrund, an Israeli peace activist, addressing staff and students on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State. He and fellow peace activist Bassem Eid, a Palestinian, visited the campus to speak about the situation in the Middle East.

Both men agreed that peace efforts were hindered by the Israeli and the Palestinian leaders. According to Pogrund, neither the Palestinians, nor the Israelis are leading the way in accepting that the conflict must end.
 
“Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders say let us get together with no pre-conditions. Then the Israeli leaders say, Jerusalem we cannot share, that is not for negotiation. And, they say to the Palestinians you must recognise Israel as a Jewish state. So, what they say is unless you agree to these pre-conditions there can be no talks without pre-conditions.
 
“And the Palestinians in turn say the settlement construction must cease immediately, and unless that happened, there is no point in meeting. And they say we will never acknowledge you as a Jewish state so do not even bother talking about it. And we insist on the right of return of Palestinian refugees. So they also say unless you acknowledge these pre-conditions there is no point in meeting with our pre-conditions. So as you can gather each side blames the other side, each side points the finger and says you are responsible for the lack of progress.”
 
Pogrund said both the Israelis and the Palestinians could demand legitimacy in that part of the world.
 
“Both Jewish and Arabs can say we have history on our side. We have religion on our side, culture.”
 
To compare Israel to Apartheid South Africa is wrong, he said.
 
“It is an occupation, it is repression, but it is not Apartheid.”
 
Eid, who is the director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, said the Palestinians were close to having a complete independent Palestinian state from 1994 to 1999.
 
“But in one rocket former Israeli Prime minister Ariel Sharon destroyed it.”
 
He said Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005 did not bring political unity.
 
“We, the Palestinians, were supposed to start building the infrastructure of the Gaza Strip but unfortunately Hamas started dancing on that Israeli disengagement and considered it as their own success because of their military resistance against the occupation.” He also said Hamas is satisfied with its hold in the Gaza Strip and Fatah is also very satisfied with its hold in the West Bank. According to Eid, it is convenient for the Israelis that the Palestinians are separated.

 

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