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Kovsies secure fourth place at 2025 USSA Track & Field Championships

09 May 2025 | Story Vuyelwa Mbebe and Onthatile Tikoe | Photo Hannes Naude

Mthi Mthimkhulu from the University of the Free State, finishing first in the men’s 400-metre race, surpassing NWU runners-up.

The University of the Free State (UFS) athletics team secured a top five slot at the 2025 University Sports South Africa (USSA) Track and Field Championships, earning fourth place at the event, hosted at the Pilditch Stadium in Pretoria from 1 to 3 May.

University athletes from across South Africa gathered for the championships, which is a key fixture on the USSA calendar. After delivering stellar performances across a broad spectrum of events, UFS went up against 21 other participating universities in various track and field categories.

The standout female athletes at this year’s event were Gabriella Marais, Nicola Gibbon, Lizandré Mulder, and Tyla Wasmüth. Marais scored a first-place finish in the women’s 100-metre race and came second in the women’s 200-metre category. Gibbon, who participated in the women’s 400-metre category, scored third position. Mulder took third and first place in the 5 000-metre and 3 000-metre women’s steeplechase categories respectively. Wasmüth placed in the top three in the women’s shot put and discus throw.

The male athletes who stood out by grabbing first-place wins in their respective categories were Mthi Mthimkhulu in the men’s 400-metre race, Molifi Mohlomi in the men’s 800-metre race, and Wernich van Rensburg in the men’s 400-metre hurdles. Dumisani Motloung took third place in the men’s 1500-metre category, and Samkelo Dlamini took second place for the long jump field sports category.

KovsieSport’s Kesaoleboga Molotsane, UFS Sport Manager for athletics, said the UFS coaching staff need to be kept motivated, as they are the first point of contact with their sports stars. “Unlike team sports, we work with individual athletes who require different and various attention. We only need to motivate the athletes to continue working hard, to study hard, and balance out their responsibilities.” She added that individual performances and athlete placements all helped UFS achieve its overall fourth place at the USSA Championships.

Kovsies can look forward to seeing Mthi Mthimkulu at the World Athletics Relays championships, taking place in China this weekend (10 and 11 May). He’ll be representing South Africa and will be the only Kovsie attending.

Mthimkhulu, Marais, and Van Renburg have also qualified for the upcoming World University Games, to be held in Rhine-Ruhr, Germany, in July. Molotsane encouraged fellow Kovsies to support these and other UFS athletes, whose journeys reflect the spirit of Kovsie athletics.

News Archive

Professor from Cambridge University addresses young scholars

2017-07-18

In the first conference of its kind on the African continent,
the Universityof the Free State’s Bloemfontein Campus
was privileged to host the Young Scholars Initiative conference.
Photo: Siobhan Canavan

“It doesn’t matter where a concept originates from if it works. The problem arises when the concept does not work.”

These were the words of Prof Gareth Austin in his address at the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI). His keynote focused on the “Economic History in Africa’s Decolonisation and Development”.

The African economic history

Prof Austin, a professor in Economic History at the University of Cambridge, discussed how African economic history has always been about development, and also gave a brief periodisation of the economic historiography of Africa.

In his closing remarks he focused more on history and economics. “Economics is a sensible approach to take, where history matters because of the sense of context.”

Reflecting on the African experience

A total of 65 young and senior scholars from five continents attended the conference Decolonising Africa? The Economic History of Development, hosted by the YSI in partnership with the International Studies Group at the UFS.

The conference, held from 8 to 9 June 2017, provided an opportunity to reflect on the African experience from an historical perspective and to assess the current position of the continent in the global economy. It discussed new themes in development, such as the role of women, minorities, and entrepreneurs.

The conference focused on how the business community has operated in an Africa that still faces inequalities and unfair terms of trade and lacks a unified political will.

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