MONDAY, 1.00PM:
SOUTH AFRICAN junior flyweight sensation Masibulele “Hawk” Makepula beat Zimbabwean Nokuthula Tshabangu on points in their eight-round catchweight bout at Nasrec on Saturday. A bruised and bleeding Makepula admitted that it was the toughest fight of his career.
“I now know what fighting at this level means. You don’t have to be clean,” he said. “Tshabangu is tough. But he clinched a lot. I fought with my heart instead of my brains at times and was worried by the cuts,” referring to the cuts he suffered in the third and sixth rounds.
He dropped Tshabangu in the third round and again in the sixth round. Tshabangu threw quick rights in the third round and the “Hawk” bled from both eyes. Tshabangu’s manager Lorraine Muringi said: “We don’t have a lot of fights in Zimbabwe because we lack sponsorship and anyone taking Makepula the full distance must be given credit. Makepula was truly tested.”
SPORT BRIEFS
WORLD STUDENT GAMES SOUTH African tennis player Gerrit Viljoen lost 1-6 4-6 to Taiwan’s Bing-Chao Ling at the World Student Games in Sicily, Italy on Sunday. Paul Trumpelmann and Glen Cilliers lost to Martin Dvoracek and Pavel Kudrnac of the Czech Republic 4-6 4-6 in the doubles quaterfinals. The SA volleyball team lost to Brazil 4-15 9-15 4-15, and the SA soccer team lost to Britain 2-1 in the play-offs for the ninth to 16th spot.
STEGMANN WINS FOR SA SOUTH Africa’s Dirk Stegmann beat Czech Jan Masik 6-3 6-0 to win the boys’ title in the ITF junior team tennis tournament in Nagoya, Japan, on Sunday.
NORTH-WEST BOWLED OVER NORTH-West won the Absa Insurance Brokers national mixed pairs bowls competion after beating Central Gauteng 24-17 at the Middleburg Country club on Sunday. Near East Rand beat Northern Transvaal 22-19 for third place.
RAMAALA SURPRISES SOUTH AFRICAN 10 000m specialist Hendrick Ramaala of Gauteng won the SA half marathon Championships at the Old Mutual Great South Run on Sunday. Ramaala finished two seconds ahead of defending champion Ezael Thlobo of the Eastern Province, and Simon Morolong of Gauteng North came third. A surprised Thlobo said after the race: “I thought he was just a pacemaker.”
KENYAN SETS RECORD KENYAN Bernard Bermasai broke the world 3 000m steeplechase record with a time of 7min 55,72sec at the IAAF Grand Prix meeting in Cologne, Germany on Sunday. Danish Wilson Kipketer broke his own world 800m record when he clocked 1min 41,11sec.
MAKAMBI WINS DEFENCE SOUTH AFRICAN junior middleweight champion Mpush Makambi beat Thabiso Dlamini on a technical knockout in the seventh round of a national title defence in East London on Sunday.