All cylinders firing for MTBS showdown

Stellenberg High School's Juli Vercuiel, right, set the track ablaze when she smashed the under-17 girls' 400m sprint record.

Stellenberg High School’s Juli Vercuiel,16 has started her track and field season with a bang, finishing first in the girls’ under-17 100m hurdles, as well as the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints at the annual Stellenberg Invitational Meeting, on Saturday.

To top off her achievements, she set a new record of 59.70s, in the 400m sprint after beating the previous one of 62s that was set back in 2014.The rest of the line-up included Paul Roos, Paarl Girls, Bloemhof, Durbanville and Drostdy high schools.

Juli, from Durbanville, now has her sights set on next week’s annual MTBS quadrangular athletics meet between Stellenberg, Tygerberg, DF Malan and Bellville high schools, at Green Point.

This will also be an opportunity for the Stellies top athlete to defend her titles that she won last year and to help her school defend their title.

Stellenberg has been MTBS champions for the past four years. However, standing in their way will be long-time rivals DF Malan, who have dominated the competition since its inception in 1994. Also, one cannot rule out Bellville and Tygerberg as they are no walk-overs.

Already an accomplished athlete while at primary school, she has represented the Western Cape schools’ team at national level, in grade five, eight and last year.

The former Durbanville Primary School pupil also came fifth at the Athletics South Africa senior championships in the women’s 400m hurdles, at Coetzenburg Stadium, in Stellenbosch, last year.

She now hopes to go one step further and be crowned national schools’ champion.

Juli said her main goal at the MTBS is to run the times she has trained for and to give it her all.

“My biggest competition is myself and the high standards I set. Disappointment is my biggest fear. Running is all about confidence and I gain more confidence the more competitions I compete in. Most importantly, I want to gain points for my school and make my teammates, coaches, teachers and principle proud,” she said.

Last week, the youngster won gold in the girls’ under-18 400m sprint in a new personal best of 58.48s at the Puma School of Speed meet, at the Green Point track.

The School of Speed is headed by Jamaican and nine-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt, who has appointed SA 100m champion Henricho Bruintjies as his vice principal in South Africa.

The first School of Speed series took place in Pretoria, in December. The series will now move to Roodepoort, before heading to Durban and ending off in Paarl.

Juli, a member of the Bellville Athletics Club, said she was surprised at the time she ran.

“I never expected to run less than 60s because it was my first race of the year. My performance was also among the five best performances of the day. I enjoyed the thrill of competing in such an amazing event,” she said.

Bruintjies said the main focus is to give children the opportunity to showcase their talents and also stand a chance to win a contract with Puma.

“I feel that there is a lot of talent in Cape Town that did not attend the event. However, the athletes that did pitch up were amazing to watch,” he said.

The school’s sport co-ordinator Heine van Dyk said the purpose of the invitational meet is to prepare athletes for the season that lies ahead and to test one another against good opposition. “This was a great way to prepare us for the MTBS meet. It is going to be a tough challenge because everybody that competes wants to win. I believe this year it will be a close contest, but anything can happen on the day,” he said.