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Peter Makgato - from despair to medals

22 December 2022 | Story Jóhann Thormählen | Photo Anja Aucamp

If it wasn’t for Peter Makgato’s UFS support system, he would have been lost to South African athletics. The road of recovery after a serious injury can be lonesome, but he was never alone.

The promising long jumper had to learn to walk again after the injury to his Achilles tendon and could only compete more than a year after his dreams were shattered in November 2020.

Only months after returning to jumping in 2022, he was winning medals again.

Keeping me focused

“Without KovsieSport, I believe I would have hung up my spikes after that injury,” says Makgato. “Throughout the entire journey back, I had support from my coach (Emmarie Prinsloo; Head of KovsieSport Jumping Academy) and Oom DB (Prinsloo; Head of Athletics at KovsieSport).”

He also praises “the expert medical help” from Kovsie Health and says he went through nothing alone. “My progress was monitored by a team that knew me before the injury and this meant they were able to keep me focused on the progress and not on the injury.”

Although he had injuries before, Makgato says the emotional challenges were much bigger. “What really helped me were a few words from Wayde van Niekerk days after my operation when I went back to the track on crutches. He told me not to lose my head.

“That is the best advice you can give someone in my position. Physically I was broken, I had to make sure that mentally I fought to stay above the waters.”

Bigger goals in mind

He was only able to walk again from May 2021, started rehab in August 2021, and was running properly by December 2021.

He was only able to jump competitively again in March 2022, and a month later claimed a bronze medal at the South African Championships (7,47 m). This was followed by a USSA bronze in May 2022 (7,46 m).

“I had bigger goals in mind. Now that I look back, I realise that for a person who could not even run properly five months before and who had little preparation time, I was doing pretty good.”

And now the Master of Laws student has his sights on bigger things again: The World Athletics Championships next year and the Olympic Games in 2024.

News Archive

Prof. Strauss' book is launched

2010-08-18

At the launch were, from the left: Prof. Francois Tolmie, Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the UFS; Prof. Pieter Strauss; and Wikus van Zyl, Manager: SUN MeDIA Bloemfontein.

Kerk en orde vandag: Met die klem op die NG Kerk was recently launched at a function in the Faculty of Theology at the University of the Free State (UFS). Prof. Pieter Strauss, Head of the Department of Church History and Polity at the UFS is the author of this book that is published by SUN MeDIA Bloemfontein.

The objective of the book is to provide the reader with an introductory view on the reformed church law. Therefore it concentrates on themes that are spread across the entire spectrum of the reformed church law.

The book endeavours to provide relevant background information for all the articles of the Church Order of the Dutch Reformed Church, but is not exhaustive in this regard. Prof. Strauss refrained from only writing about existing articles as positivist church law on purpose. He wanted to make more of the background, introductory questions and particularly a normative church law.

According to Prof. Andries le Roux du Plooy from the Faculty of Theology at the North-West University, Prof. Strauss gave evidence that he was experienced and excellently informed about all the themes and topics, had personal experience thereof, and that he could write critically and apologetically about it.

“I want to congratulate Prof. Strauss on the publication. To my mind, there are few other theologians that will be able to write about the topic in such a way with emphasis on the DR Church,” said Prof. Du Plooy.

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