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HONOURING OUR SPORTING HEROES
BY MYOLISI GOPHE
PLAYING A SPORT AMID COVID-19 has been a strain but many sportspeople at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) soldiered on and took full advantage of any respite from the COVID-19 pandemic to do what they love most – to play – with some enjoying outstanding results.
UWC SPORT ADMINISTRATION hosted the annual Sport Awards recently to recognise the outstanding achievements of the campus sportsmen and women in 2021.
“This has been a very challenging year, but we are grateful that we were able to play sport,” said Mandla Gagayi, UWC’s Director of Sport. “We lost many friends and family members to the pandemic. Therefore, we must always be grateful that we are still here doing what we love.”
Gagayi saluted the support services teams, including the drivers, medical support, security and facilities and sports administrators, for ensuring that sports events could take place. He gave a special thanks to the Risk and Compliance Division for all the advice and support received with COVID-19 protocols.
“It is through their guidance that UWC was among the few universities to go back to playing sport in October 2020,” said Gagayi.
He also thanked student athletes and coaches for their bravery in choosing to play sport against opponents when they were sometimes unsure of their COVID-19 status.
“We must make it our mission to ensure that we encourage our friends and families to vaccinate so that we can stop living in fear and we can go back to having our supporters come to the Operation Room (the UWC Sports Stadium),” said Gagayi.
IN HIS KEYNOTE ADDRESS, UWC Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tyrone Pretorius, noted that it had been wonderful seeing athletes return to the field of play this year after the restrictions of 2020 and, “even better, the many successes that they have had.”
“What has made me more proud is seeing the enthusiasm with which all our teams and individual athletes returned to the field, some of whom were called up for duty on provincial and national teams. Well done to all of you,” said Prof Pretorius.
- X-NITA STUURMAN
“It must have been a very challenging time to play with the fear that you might contract the virus if you started practising sport again. This we saw with our teams who had to travel to Pretoria to play in bio-bubbles with regular COVID-19 testing and no one in the stadiums to cheer them on.”
PROF PRETORIUS PAID TRIBUTE to the “extraordinary efforts” of the Women’s Football team for bringing home the Varsity Women’s Football Cup title, saying holding the trophy when he welcomed the team at the airport “was one of the highlights of my year”.
He said he was just as proud of all the other sporting achievements, including the women footballers’ good showing in the Hollywoodbets Super League, the athletics team’s fourthplace fi nish at the USSA cross country race, the netball team’s brilliant run in the inaugural provincial Twizza competition – where the men’s team won and the women’s team finished as runners-up. He also lauded the two medals that UWC won at the USSA Online Karate Championships and the selection of four basketball players to the CUCSA national squad.
Prof Pretorius also congratulated Gagayi for leading the way by being nominated for the FISU Gender Equality Champion Award and being appointed to serve on SASCOC’s Policy Development Commission. “This shows that we have depth on and off the field and I’d like to thank all the players, coaches and sports staff for their efforts and commitment to UWC sport,” he said.
UWC SPORTS COUNCIL CHAIRPERSON X-NITA STUURMAN congratulated the award winners and said their achievements are proof that “you can do anything if you set your mind to it.”
She said, “We at UWC are so proud of your academic and sporting achievements, and thanks to everyone for working so hard and not giving up during these troubling times.”
