St Andrew's College won the boys' quadrangular athletics meeting which was hosted by St Andrew's recently. Other schools competing were Graeme College, Kingswood College and Grey (from Port Elizabeth).
St Andrew's College won the boys' quadrangular athletics meeting which was hosted by St Andrew's recently. Other schools competing were Graeme College, Kingswood College and Grey (from Port Elizabeth).
The St Andrew's pupils performed well to win the shield by a comfortable margin from Grey. This was a fitting tribute to Frith van der Merwe, St Andrew's athletics coach who has done such a good job with their athletes in recent years. Van der Merwe leaves Grahamstown at the end of the year to take up a teaching post closer to her family in Gauteng. Tribute was also paid to Leon Jacobs who is retiring at the end of the year. Jacobs has been part of St Andrew's athletics since 1978.
The competition has been in existence since 1938 so to win the shield is immensely prestigious, said van der Merwe. The competition follows a relay format with four boys from each school participating in the track events and three in the field events. The first event was the Shuttle Hurdles Relay which was convincingly won by St Andrew’s with the boys showing expert technique over the hurdles.
Pole vault, shot put and discus were the next events and were won by the stronger Grey athletes who awed the spectators with their strength and skill. The middle and long distance relays were won by the St Andrew’s athletes who proved that disciplined and regular training pays off in the end. Javelin was next on the agenda and with the talented trio of St Andrew’s athletes taking the first three places. Kingswood was dominant in the long jump and narrowly lost to St Andrew’s in the high jump.
The sprinting relays had the spectators standing and cheering. All the races were tightly contested with St Andrew’s smooth baton changes clearly being an advantage and resulting in wins in the 4×100 and 4×200.
With a young team, Graeme managed some good individual performances, but were unable to win any events. The final scores were as follows:
1st: St Andrew’s College – 43 points
2nd: Grey High School – 33.5 points
3rd: Kingswood College – 24.5 points
4th: Graeme College – 17 points
