THE 44th South African Biathlon Championships took place in Port Elizabeth recently, with nearly 800 athletes from around the country participating.
This year also saw the introduction of the national schools’ competition where athletes’ points counted towards both their provincial team and their schools’ teams total.
For a school to enter a team at the National Championships, the school had to be the top school in their province or be placed first at an interprovincial competition during the course of the season.
This year Pearson (as the top high school in the Eastern Province) and Framesby (as the winners of the Eden Interprovincial) were invited to enter the schools’ competition.
Pearson was placed first in the high school division, giving Pearson the title of the top biathlon high school in the country.
The Pearsonites who won this accolade for the school achieved success across a range of categories:
- Girls’ u/13 category: Jodi Wilson was placed 34th.
- Girls’ u/15 category: Caitlin Rademakers, 27th, Lize Muller, 10th, Lea de Villiers, fourth and Anke Serfontein, second.
- Girls’ u/17 category: Tyra Roozendaal, 13th.
- Boys’ u/17 category: Kirsten Bester, 10th and Kyle White eighth.
- Girls’ u/19 category: Lindelize Bester, 12th.
- Boys’ u/19 category: Mark Muller was placed 10th, Marcelle Muller, eighth and Ruben Smith, sixth.
- Women’s open category: Kaitlyn Wolff was placed 12th.
