Crunch time for school athletes
[caption id="attachment_223197" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Cheetahs rugby star Sergeal Petersen was a star performer for Grey High in the Hirsch Shield athletics meeting during his schooldays
Picture: Supplied[/caption]
Prized Hirsch Shield up for grabs at Grey High School
The cream of the Eastern Cape’s athletics schools will be going toe to toe to claim the prestigious Hirsch Shield when their annual meeting is hosted by Grey High at the school tomorrow.
A total of 16 schools will be looking to showcase their talent, having put in hours of preparation for the 15 events on the programme.
This meeting celebrates its centenary this year and there will be plenty of prestige attached to the schools who are crowned champions.
Among the schools who have had their names engraved on the trophy are Grey High, Gill, Kingswood, Queen’s College, Dale College, St Andrew’s, Pearson, Lawson Brown, Daniel Pienaar and Selborne.
Queen’s, who have dominated the competition since 2002 and have won the shield for 15 consecutive years, have set the benchmark for other schools to follow.
They have picked up the Mosenthal Cup for sprints, the Badcock Cup for field events and the O’Hare Cup for jumping events in previous years.
The secretary of the Hirsch Shield since 1984 and author of a book on the event, Sam Gunn, said it was the biggest athletics meeting of the year in the Eastern Cape.
“The young men who participate in it always give it their all,” he said.
“Having been part of the meeting since 1972, I have watched the meeting grow and develop to what it is today.”
“The competition has a lot of significance in the lives of children and parents who support them because it is a platform for the children to display their athletics abilities.”
Hosts Grey High will be featuring their best athletes in the hope of reclaiming the title they last won in 1999.
This year’s participants will be hoping to break some of the magical records that the legends have set in previous years.
Craig Maybery and Olympics medaLlist Anaso Jobodwana still have their records in the discus and 100m sprint respectively, while Michael Faca, from Queen’s College, has held the high jump record since 2005.
Looking ahead to the event, Grey High sports administrator Neil Bielby said: “We are expecting a lot of competition this year as the dynamics of the meeting keep changing each year.
“The Hirsch Shield has a lot of meaning to us, and we are hoping to celebrate this in style with a win.”
The athletics meeting will kick off at 9am with the pole-vault event for U14s and end with the U19 discus at 2pm.
