The newly formed Aerial Sports South Africa took part in its first world championship and one of the South African athletes earned a gold medal!
Cesenatico, Italy (08 December 2022) – Four ladies from the newly formed Aerial Sports South Africa Federation competed at the POSA Pole Art World Championships this month. Chantal Cornelissen earned a gold medal in her category and proudly flew the South African flag high at the event.
Aerial Sports South Africa hopes to work towards the growth of Pole and Aerial Sports in South Africa. The organisation has earned its affiliation with the International Pole and Aerial Sports Federation, which meant that South Africa could finally take part in the POSA Pole Art World Championships.
Aerial Sports SA were sent five wild card entries for the competition which took place on the 3rd and 4th of December 2022. The event took place in Italy’s town of Cesenatico. Of the five, four ladies went over and competed. Two of the ladies, Amy Leibbrandt and Naa-ilah Jassiem, took part in the amateur division, Hedwig Shackle took part in Elite and Chantal Cornelissen took part in the Elite Masters 40+.
In the end, Chantal’s score of 201 placed her 1st. This meant she would be bringing home gold for South Africa.
“Wow! What a weekend! We are so proud of our team and to have had the honour of representing South Africa on the world stage alongside such inspiring world-class athlete”
“Nothing quite like hearing the National Anthem played on stage.”
The ladies are excited to see what the future holds for the sport in South Africa. They have set up a website to start building a proper list of all the pole studios in South Africa. The next step is a local competition which will be taking place in Cape Town in 2023.