Sprinter Saskia Wait flew the provincial flag high in the Windy City after claiming two medals at the South African School Sports championships at the weekend.
The 17-year-old DF Malherbe High pupil made selectors sit up and take note as she took gold in the girls U19 100m sprint in 12.15 secs in addition to claiming silver in the same age division for the 200m race.
The championships, which were held at the Nelson Mandela University Athletics Stadium from March 20-23, saw the best high school athletes go head to head for provincial supremacy across more than 200 events. Speaking about her achievements on Monday, the grade 12 pupil said her results came as a bit of a shock but that she was proud of the way she performed.
“I had set myself the goal at the beginning of the season to get to medal in the 100m and reach the final in the 200, so I never expected to win the 100m title, I am still trying to process it,” she added.
Saskia said her race strategy was pretty much the same in that she tried to “stay as calm as possible ahead of each race, and just go out and do my best on the track”. Saskia said she earned her spot after competing at various school athletics competitions in the lead up to the nationals.
In her last event prior to the national championships she competed at the Eastern Cape High Schools champs, where she took double gold in the 100 and 200 m events for a fifth consecutive year.
Having first obtained provincial colours for the first time in grade seven, she has gone on to represent the province on a number of occasions, saying it would be a dream come true to obtain national colours.
“I am not sure if there will be a SA High Schools team to be chosen from here, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but I would be honoured if I was selected for a national side as that is another goal I would like to achieve,” she added.