Gauteng dominated the championships, finishing with a total of 120 medals – 40 gold, 46 silver, and 34 bronze.

The Western Cape LSEN team delivered an exceptional performance, collecting 84 medals in total: 39 gold, 28 silver, and 17 bronze. Meanwhile, Western Cape's mainstream schools secured third place overall, with 94 medals – 31 gold, 27 silver, and 36 bronze.

Jurgen Nortjé (middle) of Free State won the boys U17 800m gold in 1:52.43. Photo: Morgan Piek

The Free State, represented by a large contingent, finished fifth overall with 62 medals: 21 gold, 22 silver, and 19 bronze. North West followed in sixth place with 33 medals – 12 gold, 8 silver, and 13 bronze. The Northern Cape managed to secure two medals – one silver and one bronze.

Despite finishing fifth, the host province, Free State, made a big impact by breaking nine national schools’ records – a significant achievement considering that 23 records were broken in total across the event.

Ntsoaki Kaiser stood out with two national records for the Free State LSEN team, claiming gold in both the girls’ U13 200m and the high jump.

Ntsoaki Kaiser won the LSEN girls U13 200m gold. Photo: Morgan Piek

Sprinter Jayden Parkin shattered the boys’ U17 110m hurdles record twice – first in the semi-final, clocking 13.09 seconds, and again in the final with a blistering 13.01 seconds to take gold. 

Reuben Smit also made headlines, setting a new record in the boys’ U15 100m hurdles with a time of 12.73 seconds. He is certainly an athlete to watch in the years ahead. 

The undeniable star of the championship was sprinter Rumé Burger, who broke four records over the course of the meet.

Rumé Burger. Photo: Morgan Piek

In the girls’ U17 100m semi-final on Thursday, she set a new record of 11.50 seconds. She then lowered it further in Friday’s final, winning gold with a time of 11.43 seconds.

Burger continued her dominance on Saturday in the girls’ U17 200m. In the morning semi-final, she ran a record-breaking 23.52 seconds. Just hours later in the final, she bettered that time to win gold in 23.35 seconds, beating Luanne du Plooy of Gauteng and Miche van Staden of Western Cape. Du Plooy took silver in 24.31 seconds, with Van Staden claiming bronze in 24.72 seconds.

There were simply too many outstanding performances over the three days to mention every individual athlete, but to all those who competed – well done!

OFM Sport/Morgan Piek cg