By Staff Reporter
Olympic silver medallist Shaun Maswanganyi spent time motivating local pupils at the Triangular Athletics Meeting between Grey High School, Kingswood College and St Andrew’s College in Makhanda on Tuesday.
The South African sprinter took time during his off-season to come to Makhanda for the day. He spent time with the local athletes, talked about his life experiences and inspired the pupils about working hard towards their dreams.
“St Andrew’s College enjoyed a wonderful day with 2024 Olympian, Shaun Maswanganyi, when he was a guest at our school on Tuesday this week,” the school said in a statement.
The 23-year-old enjoyed a campus tour, attended the Triangular Athletics event where he presented the Shield to the winning school (St Andrew’s College), and was the guest speaker at assembly.
“During the assembly, Shaun delivered an inspiring speech on the importance of combining talent with hard work. He also emphasized the value of young pupils exploring and participating in a variety of sports before specialising in one.”
The discussions continued at the Triangular Athletics Meeting, where boys from all three participating schools had the chance to engage with Maswanganyi.
“As a role model to many of our pupils, they were thrilled to have their photos taken with him and get his autograph on their athletic shoes. It was an unforgettable day for everyone, and we are incredibly grateful to have had Shaun spend the day at St Andrew’s College. He is a kind and inspiring individual, and we wish him all the best for the future,” the school stated.
Maswanganyi made a name for himself in world athletics when he, Akani Simbine, Bradley Nkoana and Bayanda Walaza won a historic silver medal in the 4X100m relay at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games recently.
St Andrew’s College said it was honoured to host the Triangular Athletics Meeting.
According to a statement from the school, the Triangular is not a typical meeting where individual athletes try to accumulate as many points as possible for their team or school to win.
The Triangular is made up of team field events of three athletes combining their furthest distances together and ranking the three schools, and all track events are relays. The Triangular is all about team performance.
Before the event kicked off, Maswanganyi made an “inspiring and captivating” speech in Assembly.
When the event did start, the St Andrew’s Triangular team displayed a fantastic team effort securing 1st or 2nd place in almost every event, the statement said.
“The 3000m race was testament to the College boys’ team performance as they crossed the line 1st to 5th place all in a row. This came at a crucial time in the day, which motivated the boys to finish strong. Kingswood College had a great performance this year. However, the College boys managed to pull off the win.”
The overall results were as follows:
St Andrew’s College: 28
Kingswood College: 24
Grey High School: 19
St Andrew’s’ interim athletics coach Michael Turner extended a “massive thank-you” to Maswanganyi.
Turner also thanked all the staff that officiated at the event.
“Your time and effort are truly appreciated. Lower looked magnificent after some rain the previous week and bore testimony to the fact that spring is fully underway. A special mention of thanks to Mr Wilkinson and Mr Kondile for your effort in preparing Lower during the athletics season,” Turner said.
