THE IIE’s Varsity College Sports Club in Port Elizabeth was one of eight campuses to participate in its first national Lockdown Virtual Relay Challenge earlier this month.
Teams of five members had to each run 3km on either day and then send a screenshot of their time using a running app such as Strava, which shows distance, time, and date.
Fifty-nine student teams and 31 staff teams from around South Africa took on the challenge.
The Bay campus entered eight student teams and three staff teams, who all did exceptionally well.
According to Debra Windsor, The IIE’s Varsity College Port Elizabeth sports co-ordinator, this was the first relay of its kind that they had undertaken, and they are therefore still learning.
First year IIE Diploma in Sports Development and Management student at IIE’s Varsity College Port Elizabeth, Mark Apenteng, was the fastest individual runner and finished the race in 10:32.
Apenteng said he found the relay fun, but challenging, since he had not gone on a run for a very long time.
“The relay reminded me about teamwork and working together, even though we don’t see each other often but we took part and we finished it on a very good note,” he said.
The ladies’ staff team, Covid Express, were the first to finish the race nationally, in 1:21:44.
The campus’s top three men’s teams – The Gladiators – finished third with a time of 1:02:52, Bolt VC in fourth in 1:03:26 and 5 Fast 5 Furious in fifth with a time of 1:04:16 nationwide.
Windsor said due to lockdown they had to think out of the box and come up with some creative and different ways to get their students involved in sport.
“We have a few more lockdown events on the cards including our FIFA 20 National Tournament, which we are running next for our students.
“This will be the new norm for sport for a while, so we’ve embraced lockdown and we’re making sport happen,” she said.
