Over 60 athletes recently gathered at Coetzenburg Athletics Stadium to partake in the first-ever Winelands International Para-athletics Competition, according to Wentzel Barnard, manager of Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Maties Parasport Club.
Maties Sport hosted the competition on 26 February in collaboration with Cape Winelands Sports Association for the Physically Disabled (CWSAPD). The competition afforded athletes from across Africa the opportunity to improve their Paralympic rankings and potentially qualify for the 2022 Commonwealth Games which is to be hosted in Birmingham between 27 July and 7 August. Fixtures featured in the event included sprinting, shot-put, javelin, wheelchair racing, long jump, and discus throw.
Katlynn Scholtz, Mieke Schwartz, Liezel Gouws, Anika Pretorius, Johanna Benson, and Marle Van Wyk competing in the 100-meter women’s final sprinting event at the 2022 Winelands International Para-athletics Competition. PHOTO: Téa Bell
This is according to Reinhardt Hamman, a former Paralympian who coordinated the event’s media coverage.
Athletes from Africa previously had to travel overseas to compete in international para-athletics competitions and obtain their international rankings — a process that can be “quite expensive”, explained Hamman.
Barnard estimated that athletes from Africa previously had to pay around R50 000 to travel abroad and have the International Paralympic Committee officially recognize their times and distances. The Winelands International Para-athletics Competition significantly reduced these costs and made the qualification process for renowned international events like the Paralympics and the Commonwealth Games much more accessible to athletes from Africa, according to Barnard.
Zanele Situ, the first black South African athlete to win a Paralympic gold medal, is pictured on the Coetzenburg Athletics Stadium’s running track after partaking in the seated javelin fixture at the 2022 Winelands International Para-athletics Competition. PHOTO: Cody Hansen
The competition also marked the first time that a South African international para-athletics event awarded prize money to its winners, said Hamman. “So there, we made history”.
Sprinters Liezel Gouws and Charl Du Toit placed first and second overall in the competition and Kerwin Noemdo — who broke the African F46 shot-put record at the competition — placed third. Each overall winner received prize money amounting to R3 000, R2 000, and R1 000 for first, second, and third places, respectively.
Councillor Dirk Swart of the Cape Winelands District Municipality is pictured standing on the far left after having presented athletes with their prize money. Overall winners of the Winelands International Para-athletics Competition take the podium to receive their prize money: Charl Du Toit in second place, Liezel Gouws in first, and Kerwin Noemdo in third. PHOTO: Cody Hansen
Organisers of the event intend to make the competition an annual fixture. This will, however, depend on whether or not funding can be secured, Barnard told MatieMedia.
“Like any event, buy-in is always needed and so is funding. Luckily, this year, we had SPAR on board and a couple of other sponsors, but I’d say we need at least R100 000 next year to make the competition bigger and better,” said Barnard.
Full fields and empty stands
The event left “a big footprint” for the CWSAPD as a driver of transformation and awareness of South African para-sports, said Joshua van Staden, a shot-put athlete who competed at the event, and who also serves on the SU Student Representative Council’s Special Needs Portfolio.
Van Staden commended the competition for bringing international athletes — many of them medal-winning Paralympians — together.
Joshua Van Staden, a shot-put athlete who competed in the 2022 Winelands International Para-athletics Competition, said that the event left “a big footprint” for the CWSAPD as a driver of transformation and awareness of South African para-sport. PHOTO: Cody Hansen
He mentioned, however, that the event did not garner a large crowd, which is “the usual” for many para-athletic events.
Barnard hopes to “get more of the public in to come and support [the Winelands International Para-athletics Competition]” to “create an exciting and vibrant vibe” at Coetzenburg, which is set to become the home ground for the fixtures’ future events.