09/01/2023
📣📣JOINT ANNOUNCEMENT FROM PIERRE BLIGNAUT AND EBEN VERMAAS.📣📣
Since the inception of the academy in 2011, The Pierre Blignaut Shot put & Discus Academy has been the leading Shot put and Discus Academy in South Africa. Our aim was to establish and deliver a higher quality of coaching in South Africa that could be followed by other coaches and institutions to uplift the standard of our sport in South Africa.
Through many years of coaching athletes and mentoring other coaches all over South Africa and Namibia, holding workshops, producing 44 South African national athletes and 5 Namibian national athletes. Both of of us have in the past been selected as national team throw coaches to international competitions. Pierre 18 times including the Olympic Games, Africa Continental team throw coach, World indoor and World Student Championships. Eben 7 times including the Youth Olympics and World Junior Championships. We both believe that we've achieved our aim to uplift the standard of shot put and discus in South Africa and that, where there were once only a few athletes on international standard, a lot of athletes are able to compete at international level these days. Other shot put and discus coaches have also shown growth and are producing top world class athletes and results(Miné de Klerk). Our best results in the past, include 3 world champions namely, Kayle Blignaut, World Junior shot put champion and Werner Visser World Youth discus champion. Simoné Kruger, discus and shot put winner at the World Junior Championship for disabled athletes. (Class F38)
Her discus throw was in 2019 an unofficial world record for the 16 year old athlete. As a senior Kayle holds the junior African and SA records in shot put and as a senior also the SA Students record. He has twice been the SA Senior Championship shot put champion as a junior and senior athlete. He has won two bronze medals at African Championships.
Simoné Kruger, was also selected to represent her country at the 2021 Olympic Games for disabled athletes where she obtained a 5th place in discus.
At the 2021 Olympics the academy had a total of 4 athletes that competed. This included Jason van Rooyen, Kayle Blignaut, Zane Weir and Simoné Kruger who competed for the disabled athletes. Zane who was previously in SA helped by the academy before he left SA to compete for Italy. Simoné Kruger who competed for the disabled athletes came 5th in the discus. Zane came 5th in the shot put and Kayle came 6th which makes him the youngest athlete at the age of 21 to reach a final and the only South African to accomplice this in the history of shot put. The academy in the past also had two gold medal in the disabled category, three bronze medalists at World Youth and Junior Championships. This include Simoné Kruger winner of 2 gold medals in shot put and discus at the junior disabled World Athletic Championship in England. Dané Roets, bronze medals in shot put at the Youth Olympics and World Junior Championships. Morné Brandon, bronze medalist in discus at the World Youth Championships.
Top 8 finalists at Common Wealth, World Youth, Junior and Disabled Championships, are: Jaco Engelbrecht who came 4th and 7th in shot put at World Student Championships in Russia and Beijing. He also as a senior won the African championships in shot put. Drwald van Heerden won the silver medal in tbe discus at the African Senior Championships. Jason van Rooyen achieved a 5th place in shot put at the World Student Championships in Italy. Meike Strydom came 5th in shot put at both the World Youth and Junior Championships in Kenia and Finland. She also won a silver and bronze medal at the Africa Senior Championships in shot put in the past. Leandri Geel who came 6th in discus at the Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China and 6th at the World Junior Championships in the Ukraine. She is a past gold medal winner for discus at the African Junior Championships. Lezaan Jordaan a former senior shot put champion came 7th in shot put in America at the World Junior Championships. Riëtte Heyns a former SA Senior and Student discus Champion and bronze medal winner at the African Championships in Nigeria, also was selected in 2022 for the SA team to participate at the Africa Games where she came 4th in discus. Zonica Lindeque is a former youth SA record holder, last year as a junior won a bronze medal at the African Senior Championships. Other notable performances were Patrick Duvenhage who came 7th in the discus at the World Junior Championships in Columbia. Johan Scholtz and Monique Wagner who won gold medals at the African Junior Championships in Ethiopia in discus and shot put. Wynand Swanepoel (discus) and DJ Liebenberg (shot put) past SA champions in the youth and junior division who represented SA with honour at the African and World Championships. Cian de Villiers is also an up and coming shot put star who came 3rd at the SA Seniors. After a serious injury he was selected for the SA senior team to the African Championships and just missed the finals at the World Junior Championships. He also will be remembered for his new U/15 shot put record of 21.67 meter in the shot put. Yanè van der Merwe for her selection to the Common Wealth Games in the disabled division and came 5th in discus. Rising star Wesley Badenhorst who as an u/15 athlete in 2020 threw a new African record of 70.51m at a official CGA league meeting in South Africa. We also assisted the Namibian coaches with the coaching of 4 Namibian champions namely, Ryan Williams, who broke the Namibian senior record and was chosen to represent Namibia at the Common Wealth Games last year. Tuané Silver, set 4 new senior and junior shot put and discus Namibian records in 2022. Tuané also came 5th at the World Junior Championships last year. Leané Boshoff from Namibia in 2021 won the World School Championships in Belgrave for discus in the U/15 age group. Leeorr-el Breytenbach who won the junior shot put and discus events at the Namibian Championships. South Africa has now increasely become the recruiting hub for the USA, who have been recruiting a large number of throwers with lucrative offers from their Universities. Most of these athletes never come back and mostly lost for South Africa Athletics.
We believe that it is now time to focus on new goals and initiatives. With differing goals still to be achieved in both our lives we have both concluded that in order to achieve these goals we need for the immediate future to path ways so that we can focus on issues that we each believe in. While the Pierre Blignaut Shot put and Discus Academy provided us with an excellent platform to achieve our initial goals it also gave us better insight what works and not.
However, with new goals and innovation on the horizon, we are of opinion that we can only be more successful if we both do so individually and concentrate on our individual strengths. It is fitting that the Pierre Blignaut Shot put and Discus Academy's achievements will for always be available on our official page and that we both be given the opportunity to work towards our respective new goals and projects through the establishment of new social media platforms. Communication in this regard will be made available for all our loyal followers on all official existing social media platforms in due course. this will enable you to join the new respective/relevant social media platforms that suite your needs. We thank you for your loyal support and friendship through the years and we sincerely hope that you will support us both with our new ventures.
☎️ For the immediate future, Coach Pierre can be reached on 0836526081 while Coach Eben can be reached on 0844378541.
Pierre Blignaut & Eben Vermaas
