On 1 November 2022, the Dean of the Faculty of Education, Prof Chika Sehoole, took time to congratulate education students who had won medals at the Commonwealth Games that were held in Birmingham in the United Kingdom from 28 July until 8 August 2022.

Our athletes, lecturers and professional staff were invited to attend the event that was held in the foyer of the Dean’s office in the Admin Building to acknowledge the achievements of the athletes.
Prof Sehoole opened the event by welcoming those present and briefly explained the purpose of the function before congratulating the athletes, their TuksSport Director Mr Steven Ball, and the Sports Education team. He then proceeded to hand gifts to the athletes, stating their sporting codes and the medals awarded to them.

The first athlete was Ms Zenèy van der Walt (in absentia), currently a fourth-year student busy with her teaching practice. Zenèy won the bronze medal in the 400 m hurdles and her speed over the last 50 m was impressive. The second athlete was Ms Kaylene Corbett, who competed in swimming and won a bronze medal in the 200 m breaststroke in a time of 2:23:67. She is preparing and hopes to qualify for participation in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, where she hopes to improve on the fifth place that achieved in Tokyo in 2021.
The third and last athlete was Mr Jovan van Vuuren, the University of Pretoria’s Sportsman of the Year, who is a master’s student writing a dissertation titled ‘A Porthole into long jump education in South Africa’ and a teaching assistant in the Higher Certificate in Sport Science programme. He won a bronze medal in the long jump with a distance of 8,06 m, which was just 2 cm short of the winning distance of 8.08 m.

In his congratulatory address Mr Steven Ball, the Director of TuksSports, referred to the challenges faced by athletes when they try to balance their sports life and education. He mentioned how being a full-time university student and taking part in a competitive sport is much more difficult than one would think. He stated that he appreciated the relationship he had built with his athletes and thanked the Faculty and the Dean for creating a platform to celebrate the students’ sporting achievements.

In closing, the Dean thanked Sports Education team for ensuring that our students participate in sports and put the Faculty flag on the map.