New HPI: A world-class sporting facility
The soon-to-be-completed North-West University’s (NWU) High-Performance Institution of Sport (HPI) will take the sports institution to new heights; not only as a primary facility for sport but as a centre of excellence locally, nationally and internationally.
“The new facility will be three times the size of the current HPI, and will be classified as a world-class facility with a multipurpose sporting centre to increase capacity and services for students and athletes,” wrote sports journalist Wouter Pienaar in an article for Potchefstroom Herald.
The current HPI, located at the Potchefstroom Campus, is an internationally recognised, multifunctional and multidisciplinary facility for elite high-performance athletes, as well as for sport development. The HPI offers the services of sports psychologists through the NWU Centre for Health and Human Performance (CHHP). In addition to this, the HPI also offers services of sport science and biokinetics to improve physical functioning and healthcare through exercise modality, as well as external sports medical services like physiotherapy, sports physicians, orthopaedic surgeons, and chiropractors.
The new HPI will open up greater opportunities, such as increasing the capacity of income generation for the university, as the HPI would have also increased their capacity of athletes internationally and locally.
Director of Sports at the NWU, Sheldon Rostron, said: “Our main priority right now with the new HPI is our services. There is more research that is going into things like recovery modalities, and the centre for human and health performances that is being created, where academics will be moving into the space. [This will be] generating a business model that allows the HPI to be able to serve clients externally and work all over the world and not just South Africa.”
Sheldon Rostron, sports manager, and director of NWU Sport, wants to make sure that the HPI establishes itself as a centre of excellence.
(Picture: Supplied by NWU)
The HPI is not just an attraction for international athletes, it is also a national attraction. “So, what we are also trying to do is build contracts with national federations so that we become a service provider in fixed sports and don’t compete with other universities in the hope to sustain sport in the future of SA,” Rostron said.
Mihle Nozigqwaba, (19), who is studying coaching science and plays for the under 20 rugby team (Young Guns), at the HPI building. (Picture: Zandile Khumalo)
The sports institution is working on creating opportunities for current athletes and sporting individuals of the NWU. Mihle Nozigqwaba, (19), a first-year coaching science student and NWU under-20 rugby player (Young Guns), said: “As an athlete that plays a sport as physically demanding as rugby, your body is required to be at peak condition all the time. The upgrade of the new building will mean more access to world-class equipment. This can only mean better training space, which will provide a free-flowing gym and a space to work on yourself.”
Adam Mayo, (20), a BCom marketing management student, holds the South African flag as he celebrates after taking third place in the final of the 400m hurdles at the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2017. (Picture: Supplied by Adam Mayo) 
Adam Moyo leading at the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2017. (Picture: Supplied by Adam Mayo)
Another athlete who strongly feels that this will be a great help in his sporting career is Adam Mayo (20), who participates in the 400m hurdles for the NWU and South Africa, said: “This new facility development will have a great impact on my sporting career and will boost the morale of the athletes, including myself; because with the upgrade to these facilities we can better our performance as athletes, especially with the new gym and the new recovery centre that will be coming through.”
This map shows gyms that are available in Potchefstroom. (Map: Zandile Khumalo)