Team South Africa has set themselves a target of 10 medals for the upcoming 29th Summer Universiade in Chinese Taipei from 19 – 30 August 2017
The final 180-strong delegation set to represent the country at the 29th Summer Universiade was announced last week, which includes 129 athletes (24 from Tuks) and a 51-member (5 from Tuks/ HPC) technical team, including team managers, coaches and medical staff.
The delegation in its entirety consists of 25 more members than the 2015 Summer Universiade in Gwangju, with 15 more athletes making the squad. However, as opposed to participants in 21 different sports in Gwangju, Team South Africa will only have representatives in 10 different sporting codes in Taipei, the bulk being made up of the athletics squad with 44 athletes.
South Africa enjoyed renowned success in athletics in Gwangju, with all six of the medals won in 2015 coming from the track.
Five medallists from the games two years ago have been included in this year’s squad, headlined by 400m gold medallist Justine Palframan, who has been named as South Africa’s flag-bearer for the opening ceremony.
Also included is Gwangju’s 800m bronze medallist Rynardt van Rensburg, 4x100m bronze medallist Ncincilili Titi as well as half marathon team bronze medallists Ambition Masihleho Ambition and Marianio Eesou.
“USSA has the utmost confidence in this team and believes that Team SA will improve and prosper from the 2015 results, and achieve the set target of 10 medals,” a statement released by the association read.
However, USSA believes that medals are not the end goals for their athletes, who they believe will gain valuable experience in Chinese Taipei.
Click to see the list of athletes going to the World Student Games
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