by Jay Caboz | Jul 27, 2012 | Featured 1, News
Nicholas Ho, first year BSc, hoped to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics but missed his final chance in March. He still has a chance to compete in the 2016 Olympics, since he is part of the South African Archery junior training team. “Archery is a kind of hit-and-miss sport. You never see the same person winning a medal two Olympics in a row,” said Ho. “You stand more chances of winning a gold in archery than in other sports such as athletics where there are big names like Usain Bolt.”
Text by Marsha Moodley & Jay Caboz
Photographs by Jay Caboz
Published in Vuvuzela 17th Edition
Wits’ Olympic hopeful, Nicholas Ho, failed to qualify for the London games, but still remains optimistic about representing South Africa in archery.
The first year BSc student said the demands of starting university had prevented him from competing in the African Archery Championships in Morocco in March. He needed to be ranked in the top 32 in that competition in order to qualify. He was writing exams at the time.
Ho had previously taken part in the qualifiers for the Singapore 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, but failed to qualify because he did not rank high enough.
“We competed in a series of head-to-head competitions, where two archers competed against each until one loses. I got eliminated in the first round though.”
Ho, who is currently ranked 57th in the national division, has represented South Africa three times: in Poland, Turkey and America. He still has a chance to compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics as he is part of South Africa’s junior archery training team.
Ho told Vuvuzela the training process for archers was quite intense. “An average shooting exercise consists of anywhere from 100 to 110 shots, but in a competitive environment I would shoot about 144 arrows for six to seven hours standing.”
Ho has competed in all sorts of weather conditions: “heat with temperatures of 40 degrees, rain and wind”.
Archery was a costly sport, he said. His bow cost R30 000, with individual arrows costing R300 each. “I am funded by my mom, but I do receive some funding from Archery South Africa and Wits Sports.”
Although archery was not a paying sport, he said he did it because he had a passion for it. “I have been playing since I was nine.”
marsha@witsvuvuzela.com
jay@witsvuvuzela.com
by Jay Caboz | Jul 27, 2012 | Featured 1, Sport
by Jay Caboz
Published in the Vuvuzela Edition 17, 27 July 2012
A hotly contested match ended with the Wits hockey men beating Crusaders 2-1 last Sunday.
The win pushes Wits into fourth position in the premier league. This places them above Crusaders by just one point. At this stage Wits have three more matches left in the season, only one more than Crusaders.
From the start, Wits applied heavy pressure on the Crusaders’ defence. The strategy has proven to be effective throughout the season. On Sunday, Wits forced the Crusaders’ defence and midfield line to make crucial errors, giving Wits a number of shooting opportunities.
Five minutes into the half, Wits goalkeeper Carl Zontag was judged to have been fouled deliberately in his own defensive area. Crusaders striker Jonathan Martin was shown a yellow card with a ten-minute suspension off the field.
Wits took immediate advantage of the 10-man side. With an impressive display of individual skill, striker Max Cobbett put in the first goal of the game from a tight angle with a reverse stick shot.
Crusaders appeared switched off for the rest of the half. They conceded another field goal thanks to a good base line run from Witsie Jarryd Povall, who set up fellow team mate Devon Campbell.
Wits went into the halftime break with the two-goal lead.
The second half saw a revival from Crusaders. Wits’ defence, which had seen little action in the first half, was put under considerable pressure and Crusaders managed to pull off a single goal courtesy of a deflection by Brendan Hayes. Despite the added pressure, Wits remained calm and managed to hang on to their slim goal lead.
At the other end, Wits produced a number of chances to increase their score but failed to take their opportunities, which included six penalty corners.
“I was happy with the win,” said Geoffrey Scott, Wits Captain. “We went there and got the points we needed. It wasn’t our best game but it’s a positive sign when we don’t play our best, yet still walk away with 3 points.”
If Wits keep their fourth place position, it would be the best result the Wits Men’s A-side has had in a number of years – especially since they played for relegation at the end of last year’s season.
Wits faces one more tough game, against Jeppe A on August 11. Jeppe is currently third in the log. At this stage bonus points in the other two matches are essential in order for the Wits side to stay fourth.
jaycaboz@gmail.com
jay@witsvuvuzela.com
by Lisa Golden | Jul 4, 2012 | Featured 1
http://storify.com/Lisa_Golden_SA/johannesburg-radio-days
by Jay Caboz | May 18, 2012 | Featured 1, News
Published in the 14th Edition of the Vuvuzela, page 3
By Lisa Golden and Jay Caboz
AFTER the violent clash between the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Cosatu in Braamfontein on Tuesday, the DA has laid an official charge of intimidation, inciting violence, and holding an illegal gathering against Cosatu at the Hillbrow police station.
Both sides have accused each other of starting the violence by throwing rocks and stones after meeting on Jorissen Street. Several protesters and journalists were injured, including a Wits student, Dikeledi Selowa.
The march to Cosatu House was to hand over a memorandum in support of youth wage subsidies, a proposal, that according to the DA would create 420 000 jobs for youths.
Cosatu had warned the DA against marching for the subsidy, as they directly oppose it and likened it to labour brokering which will encourage exploitation of workers.
Since the clash, a hailstorm of ‘he-said she-said’ comments flared across various media platforms.
DA leader Helen Zille took to Twitter to vehemently deny that DA supporters were involved in the violence, saying, “I was standing on a truck with a good 360 deg. view. I saw two rolled newspaper pages thrown by DA but no rocks or stones.”
DA leadership urged their supporters not retaliate to the Cosatu aggression, and started a chant of “We are peaceful”.
However, Star journalist Ihsaan Haffejee was quick to point out that he had taken photographs of marchers in DA shirts throwing rocks and other projectiles. Vuvuzela has similar photographs.
Patrick Craven, spokesperson for Cosatu said in a statement “COSATU, as it always does, condemns these acts of violence unreservedly, but stresses that the vast majority of its members conducted themselves with exemplary discipline and restraint, despite the provocative nature of the demands being made by the DA.”
DA Gauteng leader John Moodey accused the metro police at the march of bias. Supporters continually called out to the police to arrest Cosatu supporters who were “openly throwing rocks” in their direction.
One Cosatu supporter in an ANC Youth League t-shirt brandished a stun-gun and managed to stun some DA supporters. No attempt was made by the police to restrain or arrest him.
The police have come under further criticism, because of their initially weak presence and their inability to control the violence on both sides.
jay@witsvuvuzela.com
lisa@witsvuvuzela.com
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by Jay Caboz | May 18, 2012 | Featured 1, Sport
Published in Vuvuzela 14th Edition
Wits Tang Soo Do club brought home 20 medals from competing in the Free State Championships held in Bloemfontein last weekend.
The Korean martial arts club participated in the tournament alongside four other clubs from Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Nelspruit and Randfontein.
“If you don’t train hard it’s not going to become muscle memory,” said Ané van der Merwe, co-chairperson of Tang Soo Do (TSD) club, at the team’s fitness session on Tuesday evening.
“Core stabilisation is essential for the [Tang Soo Do] fighting form, so we need to do as much of this sort of fitness as we can. That’s where all the power in our kicks comes from.”
Kathrijn Thys, the other co-chair said: “We try to participate in as many competitions as we can. It’s really important to participate in these events. At Bloem, five of our students won 20 medals together.”
There were two categories the students could compete in. The first was TSD, which involves sparring as well as tests of form. The second involves a separate fighting style using a Korean sword called Haedong Kumdo (HK).
Van der Merwe won five medals (two for HK and three for TSD) and walked away with the award for HK senior participant of the day.
Other Witsies who were part of the club’s trophy haul were Zama Mbambo (two medals for HK and three for TSD), Titus Masike (three medals for TSD), Ngwato Kekana (two medals for TSD).
Ranking with a medal position in this tournament also meets one of the requirements for students hoping to compete in the World Tang Soo Do Championships to be held next year. Thys, Van der Merwe and Masike could qualify since they won additional medals at the SA Champs in March.
Commenting on the club’s success, Thys, who was awarded five medals (two for HK and three for TSD), said: “We have done very well this year with us competing well and having a large number of members join.
“Just last Tuesday and Thursday we had our club’s grading when a number of our white belts advanced to purple. Hopefully we can compete for Club of the Year again, which we won in 2010.”
jay@witsvuvuzela.com
For more about Jay visit his Blog or else his projects page.
by Dhirta Jinabhai | Feb 10, 2012 | News
The new journalism honours students of 2012 were greeted warmly at a welcome party held at the journalism department last night.
New additions to the class of 2012 were added to the mid- career and career entry levels of the honours course. Franz Kruger, the acting head of the school of Journalism and Media studies assured the new students that they would be working hard throughout the year.
“If you want the full benefits of this course the only way to do it is full–time,” Kruger said.
Dean of Humanities Prof. Tawana Kupe made sure the students were comfortable by assuring them that the programme was the best in the country.
“You could have gone anywhere, to Stellenbosch [University], or to the Eastern Cape. But you chose [to come] here, and for that I’m glad.
Bursaries were also handed out to the career- entry students, who will begin class on Monday the 13th. These students will form part of the new Vuvuzela team.
Franz Kruger welcomed new students to the Journalism honours course
From left to right: Akin Oyedele (Reuters), Lebogang Mdlankomo (Media 24), Luyanda Majija (CNBC Africa) and Marsha Moodley (Independent)
