Central Gauteng Athletics hosted the CGA Global Virtual Shot-Put and Discus event in partnership with Pierre Blignaut Academy, on the 31 July to 2 August 2020.
Over 300 athletes from all over the world entered the event, intending to keep active during this period of COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. CGA Track and Field Commission confirmed that in this nature of the event, athletes must compete in the comfort and safety of their back yards or in a piece of vacant land where they can maintain their social distance due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
With the virtual event taking place at the beginning of the Women’s month of August, all eyes were closely upon the woman performances with the best throw, amongst six athletes who entered in the category of U/20 Woman is the bronze medalist in shot-put at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, Dane Roets. Roets recorded a throw of 16.01m in the shot-put event, however, strong event from Mine de Kleck (SA) who landed in 15.90m to secure the second position. Juanita de Necker finished 3rd in shot-put (15.84m) and clung gold in the discus (49.70m).
In Senior Women Category, the top discus women in South Africa, Riette Heyns registered the best distance of 56.20m in discus, with World Junior Championships shot-put finalist Meike Strydom, who was the favourite, had claimed the top spot in the shot-put event in the distance of 17.6m.
“We must be reminded that with this pandemic, our athletes don’t have proper training, but we do expect good results”, said CGA Track and Field Chairperson Maggie Dicks at the post-event interview.
Douw Kruger (SA) and Wynand Swanepoel (SA), both medalists at the 2019 African Youth Championships, and Leeorr-el Breytenbach (NAM) who also represented Namibia at various International events were included, among 13 athletes who took part in the U/20 Men discus event.
Leeorr-el Breytenbach (NAM) who’s having a slight advantage with his personal best distance of 56.00m in discus, recorded a best throw of 54.02, following closely with an opportunity to upset the apple cart was Swanepoel (53.88m), and Kruger (49.90m) respectively.
In shot-put, Kruger claimed an impressive win with 20.30m distance with Tiaan van Zyl (SA) throwing 16.46m to finish 2nd and Leeorr-el fighting it out for 3rd spot.
With 10 Athletes entered in the shot-put Senior Men category, which included Jason van Rooyen (SA) 2019 World Student Games finalist. Van Rooyen came to conquests his peers with the distance of 20.61m followed by Alderson Evert throwing 14.77m to finish second.
Overall, the event was a success, and we would like to share our gratitude to all the athletes, coaches, and parents that were part of this great initiative.
Herewith, please find the attached Complete 2020 CGA Virtual Shot-Put and Discus results below.
Kind regards,
Central Gauteng Athletics:
Office Phone: 011 873 2726
Email: media@centralgautengathletics.co.za
Twitter: @CG_Athletics
Facebook: Central Gauteng Athletics
