{"id":34387,"date":"2024-02-08T13:14:44","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T11:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=34387"},"modified":"2024-02-08T13:14:44","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T11:14:44","slug":"hurdlers-harmse-and-hattingh-catch-the-spotlight-at-noordheuwel-top-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/?p=34387","title":{"rendered":"Hurdlers&#8217; Harmse and Hattingh catch the spotlight at Noordheuwel Top 15"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_34420\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34420\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-34420\" src=\"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_2212-333x500.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-34420\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">JACO VAN DER WESTHUYZEN (Ben Viljoen) on route to secure gold in a blistering 22.14 seconds in the 200m for boys u17 during the annual Noordheuwel Top 15 meeting. PHOTO: Marius Nortj\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It was a typical hot summer day on the highveld, and the athletes produced even hotter performances during <strong>Noordheuwel&#8217;s Top 15<\/strong> meeting in Krugersdorp on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The athletics meeting was hosted on Nories&#8217; tartan track which, at 1 777 metres above sea level, is the highest of its kind in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The best performance according to the APE points system belonged to <strong>Llewellyn Harmse<\/strong>, of Monument, who won the u19 400m hurdles for boys in 52.15 seconds. That gave him 971 points, which would have been good for a bronze medal at last year&#8217;s ASA Junior Championship (u20).<\/p>\n<p>In the u17 400m hurdles, <strong>Franco Hattingh<\/strong> (Kempton Park) also produced an impressive performance, winning in 52.82 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Two of the three track records bettered during the meeting happened in the sprint hurdles events. <strong>Enrique Bosch<\/strong> (Helpmekaar) won the 100m hurdles for boys u15 in 13.08 seconds to remove <strong>Francois Tredoux<\/strong> of Waterkloof&#8217;s record of 13.12 seconds from the record book. That mark had stood since 2008.<\/p>\n<p>In the boys&#8217; u19 110m hurdles,\u00a0Menlopark&#8217;s <strong>Werner Bezuidenhout<\/strong> flew to victory in an excellent time of 13.76 seconds, which improved upon the previous record of 14.11, set by <strong>Roelof van der Walt<\/strong> (Helpmekaar)\u00a0 in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Bezuidenhout added another gold medal in the 100m sprint, clocking 10.66 seconds. The competition was a lot tighter than in the hurdles, however, with <strong>Gordon Maluleke<\/strong> (Oos-Moot, 10,78), <strong>Cheswill Jooste<\/strong> (Noordheuwel, 10.88), and <strong>Shawlynn Mienies<\/strong> (Dinamika, 10.94) all dipping under 11 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Maluleke claimed gold in the 200m sprint in a good time of 21.83 seconds, with Mienies (22.28) on his heels.<\/p>\n<p>Jooste, a massive counterattacking threat, will be a strong contender for the fullback berth in the South African Schools&#8217; rugby team later this year. No doubt, some opposition rugby coaches are losing a bit of sleep ahead of their matches against Noordheuwel this season.<\/p>\n<p>The South African u16 champion of 2023, <strong>Jaco van der Westhuyzen<\/strong> (Ben Viljoen), showed a clean pair of heels to his opponents in the u16 100m sprint, winning in 10.90 seconds. He is the son of the former Springbok, Sharks, and Blue Bulls flyhalf\/fullback, Jaco van der Westhuyzen.<\/p>\n<p>Van der Westhuyzen Jr.&#8217;s performances helped his school, <strong>Ben Viljoen<\/strong>, from Groblersdal, to be crowned the champions of the smaller schools&#8217; section of the meeting. He did the sprint double by adding a win in the 200m in 22.14 seconds. Oos-Moot&#8217;s <strong>Leandro Delport<\/strong> (22.17), however, gave him a proper run for his money.<\/p>\n<p>In the u17 100m, Jeugland&#8217;s <strong>Ofentse Nondabula<\/strong> (10.65) claimed the gold medal in a faster time than Bezuidenhout&#8217;s winning mark in the u19 race.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Roux van Zyl<\/strong> impressed in the u19 400m, taking victory in 48.06 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Montana&#8217;s <strong>Marcel Brits<\/strong> produced a 915-point performance in the 1 500m for boys u17, with an outstanding time of four minutes and 3.56 seconds. He also held off Zwartkop&#8217;s <strong>Rico Coetzer<\/strong> (4:04.62) for the win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was a typical hot summer day on the highveld, and the athletes produced even hotter performances during Noordheuwel&#8217;s Top 15 meeting in Krugersdorp on Wednesday. The athletics meeting was hosted on Nories&#8217; tartan track which, at 1 777 metres above sea level, is the highest of its kind in Africa. The best performance according [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34420,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.ssschoolsplus.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}