The SA Homeschool Beat went to South Africa’s first ever athletics race event, which took place at Laerskool Wonderboom on Saturday, 26 February 2022.

This massively successful event was inspired by Eben and Michelle Steyn, who did an absolutely amazing job at co coordinating the entire event.

What they did was divide the teams into four groups:

Blue team, which was the South side of the Greater Gauteng- Johannesburg, Midrand and Centurion.

Green team, which was the North side such as Moot, Montana and Pretoria West. Yellow team, which was the East side of Pretoria and Red, which was Limpopo, Mpumalanga and all other surrounding areas.

The athletes could participate in field disciplines such as sprints- 60m,40m,80m, 100m,150m,200m, 800m, 1200m, 1500m, relay, shot-put, long jump, high jump and hurdles. The athletes were ranging from the ages of 4 years up to 17.

There were a total of 495 athletes participating in total!

The day started off at 7am sharp, with many parents having been there since as early as 5am, to help set up the field and get the event ready for the day. There were food, refreshment, sweets and slime stalls to ensure everyone remained well fed, nourished and entertained throughout the day.

The team spirits were high and the day started off with all the teams doing their war cries with much enthusiasm and a great sense of commitment. The Green Team, coordinated by Minette van der Elst, took the spirit cup with 1% over the blue team, when they did their very exciting and super load war cry. The team deserved it through and through! Well done, Green team!

The Blue team won with the total score for the day with a whopping 338 points, followed by the green team on 157 points, Red team on 128 Points and yellow with 127 points.

What an incredible achievement blue team! Well done!

Of course, what is any event without a seriously fun insert? The day was ended with the parents having their own relay race as well as a family relay. The parents did well and gave the race a good run for their money!

Some of the contestants wowed the crowd with their amazing achievements such as Juanica van der Merwe took first place for the 1200m girls under 13 and Katja Nothnagel got first place for girls under 12 with 100m. Jano van Loggerenberg came first in the shot put and third in relay for boys under 11. Wian van Loggerenberg came first in 100 and 200m, long jump and relay and second in hurdles.

Then there was Hardus Kotze who took first place for 100m, 200m, Long Jump and 80m for boys under 15. His excellent achievements clearly runs in the family, as his sister, SanMarie Kotze, took first place for 100m, 200m, Long Jump and 80m for girls under 12.

Of course, Cor Dirks, who took part in the under 16, participated in 1500m and 800m and took first place for both.

We had some well performing younger contestants too such as Zian Brink, Under 10, who took first place for High Jump, Melienke van der Merwe, who took second place for the 600m girls, under 10.

Nathan Kemp who took first place for 1200m, Under 10 Boys, Luke Kemp took second place for 40m under 4 Boys, JJ Potter took first place in long jump, second place for hurdles and shot-put and third for 1200m in the boys under 10, Rheeben Yul Ackerman got first place for boys under 7- 80m and Karine Krieg with second place in the 60 and 80m for girls under 8.

Well done to these amazing performances and to each of the children who gave an outstanding performance. Of course, there were many more really good achievers on the day, which we will be publishing on our Achievements Page in our magazine soon. So be sure to look out for it!

On behalf of the entire homeschooling community, we would like to give a very big thank you to the organizers of the event and of course the people who all assisted in making it a success.

Amanda Oosthuizen, who sponsored the certificates for the children and Anne Bester, Minette van der Elst and Ruaan and Janie Du Plessis, for coordinating the teams well before and during the event. To all of the many parents who were helping out in the blazing sun on the day, we solute you! And of course to our photographers, Rolanda de Wet, Chantelle Erasmus and Jan Krynauw, who spend the day taking photos of the entire event and made the photos available for all to use at no charge.

Without everyone’s hard work, this event would not be such a success!

With all of that, Hoerskool De Wilgers has offered that the homeschoolers use their fields for next year’s national homeschooling athletics event.

With this incredibly well organized and emerged new annual event, it is obvious that there is no other option, but for it to grow and expand into one of S.A’s largest homeschooling events ever!

If you wish to participate in next years event, send us an e mail at and we will ensure you join in on the fun for 2023!

See you all again next year, bright eyed and bushy tailed, with much excitement. And until then, from all of us at the S.A Homeschool Beat, happy homeschooling!