Mon Jun 28 12:22:00 UTC 2004
The first five of nine provincial finals of the Shoprite Checkers / USSASA National Under-13 Netball Championships took place around the country between Saturday, 12 June and Saturday, 19 June 2004.
The Shoprite Checkers National Under-13 Netball Championships under the auspices of USSASA is designed to enable talented players to go on to play Netball at high school, provincial and national level, while allowing parents, teachers and whole communities to become involved in the process.
The sponsorship in excess of R1 million by South Africa’s largest supermarket group, Shoprite, funds a national Under-13 netball championship for millions of young girls attending the country’s 20 000 primary schools.
President of USSASA’s Netball, Di Woolley comments on the significant impact that the Shoprite sponsorship has had on the development of Netball in South Africa over the past six years: “The continuation of the sponsorship and support of the Under-13 championship will further strengthen Netball as a leading sport in our schools.”
In a couplet of nail-biting final matches, the netball champs from merit school Rustenburg Primary and development school Connie Minchin P.S. were victorious in the North West Province finals that took place on Saturday, 12 June 2004.
In the Western Cape finals that took place on National Youth Day, Wednesday, 16 June 2004, the teams from Western Province merit school Bellville Noord and South Western Districts’ development school Sakumlandela walked away with the laurels.
The Gauteng matches took place at EG Jansen Secondary School in Boksburg on Saturday, 19 June 2004. The young netball stars from Johannesburg North merit school Fontainebleau and Gauteng West development school Ipeleng took the victors’ medals.
In the Limpopo finals, which also took place at Laerskool Pietersburg in Polokwane on Saturday, 19 June 2004, the teams from the development school Sokgedlwa Primary in Mokopane and merit school Laerskool Pietersburg, walked away with the honours.
The Mpumalanga matches took place at Kanonkop Primary, Middelburg, on Saturday, 19 June 2004. The teams from western region merit school Ingwenyane Primary and eastern region’s development school Nelspruit Primary were the winners.
The winners now go through to the National championships in Cape Town on 20-21 August 2004.
The national championships will take place at the Oliver Tambo Stadium in Khayelitsha, Western Cape and SABC Top Sport’s exclusive junior sports developmental programme, Sportsbuzz, will feature inserts on the championships every Sunday on SABC 1’s Ses’fikile at 15h00.
The matches will be re-broadcast Fridays at 14h00 on SportsBuzz (SABC 2), Saturdays at 05h30 on YO.TV (SABC 1), Sundays at 17h30 on SABC Africa (DSTV) and on the following Fridays at 17h27 just after R.U.N. The Adventure (SABC 2). For details of matches taking place in your area, visit www.sabcsport.co.za or call (011) 465-5225.