African U18 Championships. Paul Roos athlete, Luke van der Merwe, returned home from the recent African U18 Championships. The championships was held at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola, Zambia between 29 April and 3 May 2023. Luke returned from the African U18 Championships with not only a new personal best and the gold medal. He is also one of the leading high jumpers in the world!
Van der Merwe is only turning 17 in June. He is ranked, together with the Jamaican duo of Aaron McKenzie and Chavez Penn, as the leading U18 high jumper in the world! This is courtesy of his 2.10m jump at the African U18 Championships. Van der Merwe had jumped 2.05 at the South African U18 Championships. It was held at the Msunduzi Athletics Stadium in Pietermaritzburg between 22-25 March 2023 which had seen him ranked 3rd. He continued his impressive streak. This included winning the Curro Top Schools, Boland Central, Western Cape and SA U18 Championships. Luke also won the silver medal at the Boland and SA Schools Championships.
At his best
Going into the high jump event at African U18 Championships, Luke knew that he would also have to be at his best. At the height of 2m he was in the 5th position on countbacks. He managed to clear the height and go into the medal positions This was together with the highly rated Nigerian pair of Justin Osigwe Jimoh and Fiaku Goodluck Ezechukwuchiri. At 2.05m he needed to clear the bar with his final jump This tied him for silver with Jimoh. To win the gold medal he also had to surpass his personal best of 2.08m, which he did.Luke was crowned the African Champion and break the continental record for U18 athletes.
He also joins fellow Paul Rooser Breyton Poole in winning a continental title. Poole won the gold medal at the 2019 African U20 Championships. Van der Merwe will want to emulate this achievement and has two years in coming up in the U20 age group to do so.
Van der Merwe has been coached by Bennie Schlechter for the past three years, who also coached Poole. He trains at the Coetzenburg Stadium, courtesy of the good relationship between Paul Roos Gymnasium and Maties Athletics. Both coach and athlete are undoubtedly excited to see what the future holds, and with the addition of the new and improved Paul Roos Gymnasium high performance centre, the sky is literally the limit for Luke Van der Merwe!
More school news: https://schoolsthatrock.co.za
Photos supplied