HIGH ASPIRATIONS: Gymnast Ross Ferguon has just come back from the All Africa Games and will be leaving for the Universiade in Bangkok next week.Photo: Erica Dreijer
A WITS gymnast was part of the national gymnastics team that came third in the 2007 All Africa Games, currently being held in Algeria.
Ross Ferguson, a third year Actuarial Science student, returned earlier this week after his team received a bronze medal and he achieved sixth place in the high bar event.
Ferguson was unable to take part in the trials for the Games in April, after he broke his wrist. This meant he was left out of the national team. But three weeks before the Games, he was asked to step in when a team member was injured and could not take part.
Since his wrist was still recovering, he took part in only three events: high bar, vault and floor.
Before the All Africa Games, he was training to take part in the 24th Universiade in Bangkok. Derived from university and Olympiad, the Universiade is an Olympic Games for students, and is second to it in sporting importance. It begins on August 8.
The Universiade, governed by the International University Sports Federation, is hosted every two years. Over seven thousand athletes from 200 countries are expected to participate this year.
Ferguson started practising gymnastics seriously when he was five, after his parents enrolled him in Monkeynastics. His parents say he “was always doing handstands and cartwheels”, from an early age.
At the age of nine, he participated in his first national championships and the team received a silver medal at the 2004 Commonwealth Youth Games.
Gymnastics is something he enjoys. And he realised early that, if he worked at it, he could be good. This is his secret: To train hard and stay focused “even though at times it gets boring and repetitive”.He says it’s the only way to get to the top of your game when you have a talent. You have to realise the rewards may sometimes be slow to materialise, but you should just “keep at it”.
He dreams of qualifying for the 2010 Commonwealth team, but is realistic enough to accept there isn’t a sustainable living to be made from gymnastics. Both his studies and gymnastics are priorities for him. Not content just with sporting success, he intends also to complete an honours degree.
It’s a balancing act for him (in more ways than one). It means he has time for little else, but he is nonetheless an active member of his church.
Gymnastics remains a challenge as “it’s something you can never be perfect at and there is always a lot more to learn”, says Ferguson. He trains three times a day, six days a week. He loves being part of a team and going on tour, especially when he gets to compete overseas.
* Odette Richards, another Wits student, will also be participating in the Universiade, which is open to students between the ages of 17 and 28 who are registered at a university. (by ERICA DREIJER vuvuzelaonline.com)