New athletic stars

At the Athletics Club, the women are picking up right where they left off last year - hogging all the headlines. Two women are doing particularly well in field events that UCT has been no great shakes at in the past. Pole-vaulter Sylma Jordaan, who registered at the university just two days before the event, and javelin thrower Odette Olivier represented Western Province at the South African Senior Track & Field Championships in Port Elizabeth in early February. Jordaan, who has a national junior cap, took home bronze. That's a big deal, as her medal is the first won by a UCT student at a national senior championships since at least 1993. Olivier injured her elbow, but still managed a fifth place. Jordaan's UCT career is starting off much the way Olivier's did. Last year, Olivier broke the UCT javelin record before even putting a foot in a lecture hall. Jordaan is following suit. With lectures yet to start, she's already set a new UCT women's pole vault record of 3.70m. Some at the club believe the men's record of 3.82m may well be under threat.