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MOSSEL BAY NEWS - It is only 9 February and Point High School has already had a brilliant athletics year so far.
Three decades-old school records were broken on one day, at the inter-house athletics meeting held on 26 January.
In total, an impressive 15 new records were set on this day including the three records that are decades old.
The longest-standing record broken was the men's U19 200m record of 23.30 seconds set 49 years ago in 1969.
It was broken by Point victor ludorum Sameer Matthews, with a speed of 22.58 seconds.
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The girls' U17 1 500m record of 5:13:20 set 42 years ago in 1976 by Sharon Bates, the Springbok athlete, was smashed by Grade 10 learner Elné Conradie with her speed of 4:57:02.
And the men's U19 6kg shotput record distance of 13m, set 24 years ago in 1994, was broken by Díllan Crause with his distance of 13,45m.
Díllan Crause
Crause said his accomplishment was bitter-sweet for him when he found out the person who had set the shotput record had been a brilliant young sportsman who died tragically.
"I was sad to hear that, but I really worked hard for this, so I am pleased with the result," he said.
Crause trains from Mondays to Thursdays every week.
Matthews, on the other hand, had been away from school and not involved in sport for two years while he was busy with Islamic studies in Cape Town, so he is really surprised to break the 200m record at the school.
He also came first in the 100m, first in long jump and second in the 800m and 400m.
Dewald Scholtz, who passed away in 2000, set the shotput record 27 years ago.
Dewald Scholtz
His mother, Sylvia, who lives in Hartenbos, told the Mossel Bay Advertiser: "Dewald was unbelievably good at sport.
"He must have broken about 17 records and received many certificates. He always won in the shotput and discus.
"I always said you could give him a stick and a stone and he would play golf with it.
"He played Craven Week rugby. When he was in Standard 5 at Park Primary School he was the first one to get 100 runs in primary school in the Southern Cape. He also got lots of wickets.
"When in Std 5 he was chosen for the Western Province U13 team to play in the primary schools cricket week in South Africa.
"When he was in Grade 11 and 12 he played SWD cricket. Boland offered him a job after matric.
"At the time he passed away he had also been invited to play cricket in England."
Dewald, who worked as an electrician, passed away on 10 November 2000.
Sylvia said: "My other son called me to tell me about the record. He said: 'Mom, Dewald's shotput record has just been broken.'
It was really exciting to hear this. Records are made in order to be broken and I'd like to speak to the boy who broke it and congratulate him."
Sameer Matthews
The 200m record that Matthews broke was set in 1969 by Eric Moore, who still lives in Mossel Bay.
In an interview with the Mossel Bay Advertiser, Moore said he had had a coach in Cape Town at the time.
He used to explain his progress and running times to the coach and the coach would adjust Moore's training programme accordingly. Moore had been in the Western Province junior athletics team.
He had been a sport allrounder, playing rugby too, he said.
Elné Conradie
Read Louise Karsten's article on Conradie's achievements.
ARTICLE: LINDA SPARG, MOSSEL BAY ADVERTISER JOURNALIST
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