The 2015 edition of the USSA Athletics Championships that was held in Stellenbosch will always be remembered by great performances and the disappointment of injuries to key athletes of TuksAthletics.

The highlight of the meeting, was undoubtedly the winning time of Akani Simbine in the 100m for men when het completed the distance in a time of 10.09 seconds – the fastest ever by a South African sprinter at sea level.

Sprinters has a distinct disadvantage at sea level due to the density of the air compared with track like the Bestmed TuksAthletics Stadium which is high above sea level favouring the sprints. Akani also completed the double when he won the 200m for men in a time of 20.51 seconds. Six of the 8 finalists of the 1000m for men, was athletes from Tuks – a display of dominance by TuksAthletics in the sprints. Our second fastest athlete in the 100m, Emile Erasmus, was injured in the heats and could not advance to the next round which robbed TuksAthletics from having 7 athletes in the final.

Other highlights of the meeting were the personal bests of Lindsay Hanekom and Leroux Hamman in the 400m Hurdles event.   Lindsay won the gruelling event in a time of 50.00 seconds, only 0.08 seconds faster than Leroux who came second in a time of 50.08 seconds.  Other notable performances were Duwayne Boer also won the long jump in a seasons best distance of 7.79m, only 10cm away from his personal best and beating the SA Champion of the previous week, Chad Herman in the javelin that won with a distance of 72.70m, Anneri Ebersohn winning the 400m Hurdles in a time of 58.63 seconds, Mar-Leze Vos adding the USSA title to that of the SA title in the Pole Vault she won a week previously when se cleared the crossbar with a height of 3.70m, Mpho Links winning the High Jump when he cleared 2.20m, just 3 cm lower than the week before when he won the SA Senior Athletics Championships despite still being a junior and Fredrich Pretorius in the Decathlon winning with a total of 6779 points, despite not clearing a height in the Pole Vault, a clear indication of his dominance in this event.

Unfortunately, the Championships started with Jon Seeliger injuring himself during warm up where valuable points were lost in the 100m, 200m and 400m, Emile Erasmus that got injured in the 100m heats who also would have brought in valuable points in the 100m and 200m and the disqualification of our 4 x 100m women’s relay team despite appealing and being successful just to be overturned by another appeal by the other institutions.

TuksAthletics could not recover from these setbacks in a closely contested competition and ended 3^rd with a total of 282 points, PUK 2^nd  with a total of 302 and UJ winning the event by only 2 points with a total of 304 points.