Sport
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Living the dream
R
ising UWC cricket star Aviwe Mgijima is living his dream again. In 2012, a slump in form cost Mgijima his place in the Western Province first-class team. Last year he was offered a lifeline when he came to study at UWC through the University’s Sport Skills for Life Skills programme, which offers full bursaries to promising cricketers. “All you need to do is to play cricket and pass your studies,” says Mgijima of the programme. The opportunity proved to be a turning point as Mgijima’s cricket career was resurrected under the guidance of Britishborn Andy Moles, former New Zealand coach and head coach of the UWC Cricket team. Mgijima has blossomed, and he was recently signed by the Cape Cobras, one of six franchise teams in the country. “Making the Cobras is a high moment for me,” comments the all-rounder, who is doing a BA degree at UWC, majoring in industrial psychology and language & communication. Mgijima featured prominently in the Cobras side that made it to the finals of the recent Ram Slam T20 Challenge, the premier twenty20 cricket competition in South Africa. (They unfortunately lost to the Dolphins.) It was in that competition that he rubbed shoulders with several members of the senior national team who had represented the star-studded Cobras, including Graham Smith, Hashim Amla, Vernon Philander and JP Duminy.
“It was so nice being in the same change rooms with those top-class cricketers,” Mgijima remembers. Born in the Sheshegu village in Alice near King Williams Town in the Eastern Cape, Mgijima grew up in a cricket- and rugbyloving family. His uncles ran an amateur cricket club. Inspired by the likes of top cricketers Fanie De Villiers and the late Hansie Cronje, whom UWC’s Sport Skills for Life Skills programme helped Aviwe Mgijima he often watched on turn around his cricket career. television, cricket soon took first preference in ahead.” the talented Mgijima’s sporting career. Mgijima’s ultimate dream is to make the His skills didn’t go unnoticed, and Proteas team. But as long as he is playing he was selected to play for the Border professional cricket and doing well, he is provincial and the South African Colts happy, he says. Under-19 squads before he joined Western Any advice to young hopefuls? Province in 2011, where he was named Club “If you have a dream, work hard for Cricketer of the Month in November 2012. it, especially in cricket. It is a difficult Now he plays for the Cobras, Western sport. You often need to motivate yourself Province and UWC, with the most senior because chances are that you will not teams obviously taking priority. Add to perform well all the time. The nice thing the mix his busy academic schedule, and is that you can play well into your late Mgijima has a lot to juggle. 30s and eventually, if you stick to it, you “I’ll have to manage studies and sport the will get a chance to make it to the higher right way,” he says. “I have a tough year level.”
UWC swimmers triumph
U
WC swimming club has many reasons to celebrate, now that three more athletes from the club have excelled in different competitions around the country. Long-distance swimmer Rudolf Visser finished second in the 10km category at the 2014 Swimming South African National Open Water Championships, hosted by KwaZulu-Natal Aquatics at Midmar Dam in early February. That swim was good enough to secure Visser a place at the World Junior Open Water Championships in Israel later this year. At the same event, first-year sport, recreation and exercise science student Shannon Austin won bronze in the women’s 10km race. She went two positions better a few weeks later, taking gold at the Western Province Aquatics 10km Championships in Grabouw. BA psychology student Joshua
Finch won the 100-metre breaststroke event at the national champs. Visser was “happy and excited” to qualify for the world championships, he said, and attributed his rise in swimming to the “good coaches and best facilities” provided by the University. Finch explained how proud he was to represent Swimmers Joshua Finch and Rudolf Visser have won medals at UWC and encouraged more students to take up different championships over the past months. swimming. It’s not just a are amazing.” sport, he said, but also a These successes augur well for the club, life skill (it can save lives), and can offer says sports administrator Glen Bentley. opportunities to win bursaries and represent “The medal-winning performances by our South Africa at international events. swimmers is a clear indication that we are “Besides being competitive, the friends you on the right track with our goals.” make and the doors swimming opens for you