Central Gauteng Athletics partnered with the University of Johannesburg to host the 1^st ever pre-season Track and Field Summer Challenge on Saturday, 02 December 2023 at the UJ Athletics Stadium in Auckland Park.

The purpose of the Summer Challenge was to give a competition opportunity to our junior and senior athletes before the 2024 Track and Field season kicking off in January 2024. We had a number of exciting mixture of events which included Race Walk, 60m, 150m, 600m, 1 000m, High Jump and Long Jump amongst other events.

The challenge achieved its aim of giving our Track and Field athletes an opportunity to measure their fitness and performance before the upcoming 2024 Athletics season. The challenge enjoyed great support by athletes including a number of athletes coming from our neighboring provinces.

The day commenced with the 3km walk events which included various age categories. One of the interesting Race walk events was the Girls U16 3km walk where Masai dominated to claim all podium positions with Thato Ramalo leading the race clocking 17:56.00 Ramalo was followed by Keneilwe Mhlare in the time of 17:57.70 and to close the podium was Owami Mzimande clocking 19:13.40.

In the senior men 600m event, Boikanyo Motlhame of UJ conquered the race from the start to claim the victory in 1:19.19. He was followed by his teammate Sabelo Dhlamini in the time of 1:21.14, Keorapatse of ARB came third in the time 1:21.41.

The Women U18 600m was another exciting race to watch where Hanri Pretorius of Boxer came 1^st in the time of 1:38.98. In second position was Cine Fraser of Monnas clocking 1:45.27 and settling for third position was Diane Botha of IRUN in the time of 1:47.93.

Long Jump is one of the field events that the province is looking forward to dominating next season. In the senior women long jump UJ athletes dominated to secure all podium positions with Nolwazi Mashaba in 1^st position with a jump of 5.87, followed by Bophelo Seqe with a jump of 5.58 and Mahlatse Dombeni covering a distance of 5.35.

Overall, it was a great day of athletics and looking forward to seeing athletes ready to entertain us with exceptional performances in the 2024 Track and Field season.