Mariette Esterhuyse – “Running the class”

Essie on the run

Mariette Esterhuyse, is a lecturer at the Northlink College Parow campus and cross country/ long distance runner athlete, featured in many newspapers articles for her winnings in several sporting events she participated in.

She’s also known as Essie or Strauss, grew up on a farm in the Sutherland, Northern Cape Province. It all began by walking with her neighbour and before she knew it she was running 2kms. Essie has been taking part in events since 2004, has travelled far and wide representing her club from whom she also received a merit award for her dedicated service to the club.

In 2011, she was also recognised as the athlete with the top accomplishments in Road Running according to the IAAF table. She won a gold medal at the Western Province Cross Country championships, where she was also chosen for the Western Province team that took part in the SA Championship on 14 September in Potchefstroom where she took part in various long distance events. In the same year she also received an award for best female athlete (40-49).

Recently she represented South Africa in Brazil where she took part in the 8km cross country, 10 000m and 2000m events. At the event Mariette took bronze in the 10000m event despite extremely wet conditions, and silver in the 2000m event where she also broke the African record in 8 minutes and 13,93 seconds.

Northlink would like to congratulate Mariette on all her awards she won thus far and wish her well in her future events that she will participates in.