All eyes on Rio for Janine
Alberton's Janine van Wyk, a member of Banyana Banyana, represented the country at the All-Africa Games in the Congo.
ALBERTON – Alberton’s Janine van Wyk, an experienced member of Banyana Banyana, the national women’s soccer squad, represented the country at the All-Africa Games in the Congo, which was described as the competition “to sharpen the Banyana Banyana competitive edge ahead of their crucial final round Olympics qualifier against Equatorial, Guinea.”
Janine’s national team only needs to beat Equatorial Guinea over two rounds to play in their second successive Olympic Games in Rio next year as one of two Africa teams.
But before Janine and her team will be involved in the final Olympic qualifier, they were in the Congo where they were playing in Group B, with Cameroon, Ghana and Egypt. The SA national team has never won the All-Africa Games, finishing only as runners-up for silver medals on two occasions, in 2003 and 2007. This year they drew their final game to Ghana and went out to return home.
Janine van Wyk, a former Hoërskool Alberton pupil, was one of three Alberton sports individuals at the previous Olympic Games in London in 2011. She was also honoured as one of Ekurhuleni’s top three sportswomen for 2014, earlier this year.
