Breaking News

GRAAFF-REINET NEWS — The Trisome Games, the first multi-coded event for persons with Down’s Syndrome, took place in Florence, Italy, during July, and Rentia Oosthuizen (24) from Graaff-Reinet was one of the 41 athletes honoured to be chosen to represent South Africa.

Rentia is no newcomer to international competition, as she also represented her country in 2014 in the world swimming championships in Mexico.

At the Trisome Games, Rentia competed in seven events, and remarkably, was placed in all but the shot put. She came fourth in both the 100m sprint and 200m sprint, in both cases breaking the South African and African records.

She was awarded the bronze medal in the 800m walk, and was part of the 4 x 400m relay team which took the gold medal.

In both the long jump and triathlon, she came second, winning silver medals, and once again breaking both the South African and African records.

This is a wonderful achievement for Rentia, and her very proud mother Rene was delighted to have been able to travel to the games to support her daughter.

It was particularly exciting as South Africa came out on top of the 11 countries taking part, with a total of 31 medals- almost twice as many as their nearest competitors Italy!

Rentia trains twice daily, and has in her sights the South African Championships for the Intellectually Impaired in Paarl, which will be held at the beginning of October.

She is also eagerly looking forward to the World Championships next year, which will be held in Portugal.

'We bring you the latest Graaff-Reinet, Karoo news'