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INLSA<\/p>\n
Banyana Banyana defender Zamandosi Cele practises for the London Olympic Games. The DUT student, who is from Pietermaritzburg, will be participating in the games for the first time.<\/p>\n
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A KwaZulu-Natal student will be jetting off to the London Olympic Games as part of the national women\u2019s soccer team, Banyana Banyana. <\/p>\n
Zamandosi Cele, 21, a Durban University of Technology (DUT) student, has been selected for the national squad as a defender. <\/p>\n
Cele, of Willowfountain, near Pietermaritzburg, is a second-year public management student at the DUT Midlands campus. <\/p>\n
She plays as a defender for the Durban Ladies\u2019 Soccer Club, as well as the DUT Midlands Women\u2019s Soccer Team. <\/p>\n
Cele said yesterday she was \u201cecstatic\u201d about making the team. \u201cI am happy that I could convince the coaches of my talent and skill,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Initially Cele was not selected. It was her performances for DUT which swung things in her favour, as Banyana Banyana\u2019s assistant coach, Matsobane Laka, spotted her during a match and decided to include her in the squad. <\/p>\n
\u201cI started playing soccer around the age of seven. I would tag along with my brothers when they had soccer matches near home. They also included me in their games,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Asked how she was preparing for the Olympics, she said: \u201cThe team is currently at a training camp in Mpumalanga and we are working hard.\u201d <\/p>\n
She added that her hard work had paid off. <\/p>\n
\u201cI am very excited. It will be a great opportunity and I hope the team does well.\u201d <\/p>\n
Fathima Haffajee, director of student services and development at the DUT Midlands campus said the university was \u201cvery proud\u201d of Cele\u2019s achievement and wished her well for the Olympic Games. <\/p>\n
\u201cCele is from an indigent family and has overcome tremendous odds in her quest to be the best. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe can all be very proud of this exceptional DUT student,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
The university\u2019s sports officer, Mike Mbatha, described Cele as a shy student but a good listener and extremely dedicated. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
l Durban\u2019s swimming sensation, Chad le Clos, is among the KZN athletes who will participate in the Olympics. <\/p>\n
The Pinetown star qualified in all the events he participated in and will be racing in six events, which is an SA record for the Olympics. <\/p>\n
He will swim individual medleys, the 400m and 200m, and both the 100m and 200m butterfly races. <\/p>\n
l Lucas Sithole of Newcastle will represent the country in the London Paralympic Games which take place after the Olympics. Sithole is the country\u2019s number one ranked wheelchair tennis player. <\/p>\n
He told The Mercury yesterday that he was training twice a day and was \u201ca bit nervous\u201d about participating in the games for the first time. <\/p>\n
\u201cI will do what I have to do for country and province,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The list of all KZN athletes who would participate in the games would be released this week, the provincial sport and recreation spokesman, Mluleki Mntungwa, said yesterday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INLSA Banyana Banyana defender Zamandosi Cele practises for the London Olympic Games. The DUT student, who is from Pietermaritzburg, will be participating in the games for the first time. A KwaZulu-Natal student will be jetting off to the London Olympic Games as part of the national women\u2019s soccer team, Banyana Banyana. Zamandosi Cele, 21, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-11614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}