The MEC for the Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Mr. Dan Kgothule would like to congratulate the Free State badminton team who gave a sterling performance at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations Individual Events that finished on 20 August 2013.
- The captain of the SA Badminton team, Olympian Wiaan Viljoen, won two (2) out of the two (2) gold medals.
- Andries Malan won one Gold Medal in the Men’s Doubles Final (he partnered with Wiaan) and one silver medal in the Mixed Doubles.
- Elme de Villiers and Sandra le Grange won a bronze medal in the Ladies Doubles discipline.
Elme de Villiers has been included in the 2016 Road to Rio BWF Project of Excellence as she is showing tremendous potential! These four (4) athletes are all part of the Department’s High Performance Centre for Badminton.
The High Performance Centre for Badminton is one of the High Performance Centres that were recently launched by the Department. The other Centres are the Boxing High Performance Centre, Netball High Performance Centre and Karate High Performance Centre.
Since their establishment these centres have produced remarkable results in a very short space of time. For example:
1) The Karate High Performance Centre produced 16 Elite Karate athletes who took part in the Africa Zone 6 championships that was held in Namibia from 28 to 29 June 2013.
These athletes secured five (5) gold, four (4) silver and three (3) bronze individual medals, topped off by 6 gold team medals during this tournament. The entire South African (SA) Senior Male team won a gold medal in the tournament. Out of the seven (7) players in this SA team five (5) were Free State athletes.
2) The Netball High Performance Centre produced sterling results with the Mangaung Netball Team beating Gauteng North Netball Team to win the finals of the 2013 SPAR National Championships after more than 50 years!
3) Following the National Amateur Boxing Championship held in Cape Town from 2 to 7 of July 2012 the Free State ranked number three in the country, just next to boxing giants such as the Eastern Cape.
These excellent performances by the Free State continue to serve as a clear testimony to the fact that the province deserves to be the host of the National Training Centre that was recently launched in partnership with SASCOC on 7 August 2013.
MEC Kgothule will like to again congratulate our athletes who have done well in the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations Individual Events.
Enquiries:
T Erika Calitz
Chief Development Officer
Cell: 060 501 6951
Tel: 051 4073513
Email: erika@sacr.fs.gov.za
