THOHOYANDOU - Four secondary schools around Sibasa this week received a welcome shot in the arm when the Sibasa branch of Dunns Clothing handed them trophies, T-shirts and caps to the value of R50 000 for the Dunns Inter-school Sports Tournament.

The participating schools are Mphaphuli High, Phaswana Secondary, Raluswielo Secondary and Mbilwi Secondary school.

During the handing-over ceremony, the spokesman from Dunns said that the store wanted to promote sports amongst young players in order to help them stay off the streets after school hours. He mentioned that he would rather see the youngsters play sports than be involved in other, less beneficial activities.

In his response the spokesperson of the organising committee, Mr Nethengwe, said he appreciated what Dunns was doing for sports. He stated that the tournament will be regarded as one of the major competitions.

According to Nethengwe, the shop is sponsoring soccer, netball and volleyball. The tournament kicked off immediately after the launch.

In the first matches Mbilwi Secondary School were beaten 1-0 by Mphaphuli High in a soccer match and were trounced 21-1 in a netball match. Phaswana Secondary were excellent when they lambasted Raluswielo 2-0 in an exciting match. Raluswielo fought strongly to beat Phaswana School 13-11 in a netball game. They were superb when they beat Phaswana 13-10 in a volleyball match.

Nethengwe said the tournament that started on Monday will have its finals played today at the Mphaphuli School grounds. On behalf of the tournament committee, Mr Nethengwe expressed his appreciation for the cooperation that prevailed throughout the tournament and the manner in which participants behaved from the first game. "We would love this tournament to become an annual competition for schools and the sponsorship to be increased to accommodate neighbouring schools in the future," said Nethengwe.