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Commentary - A Year of UJSportslabs

It is hard to believe that it is over a year since the University of Johannesburg Department of Sport and Movement Studies and Sports Labs joined forces to form UJSportslabs. During this time, the Laboratory situated at UJ’s Doornfontein Campus has been fully established and has been rather busy, not only locally, but ‘offshore’ too.

As well as the more local work in SA the Laboratory has been involved in projects in Ghana, Comoros, Mauritius as well as the Seychelles in the past year. The local work which we are currently working on is with the World Cup 2010 Organising Committee on 27 football turf pitches ensuring the legacy of the 2010 FIFA Football World Cup held in South Africa has a lasting impression.

Currently 6 of those football pitches have been constructed with UJSportslabs taking on the responsibility of quality control during the construction of these as well as testing for FIFA 1 Star to enable FIFA to certify the fields.  This has taken us all around South Africa from Jane Furse in Limpopo to Upington in the Northern Cape. It’s been a journey for Emma Steyn who has with support from the UK laboratory been looking after what is an expanding portfolio of work.

Well done Emma.

Case study: Qedilizwe Secondary School, Evaton North

As part of the World Cup Legacy programme Qedilizwe Secondary School in Evaton North was the recipient of a new full size football turf pitch. UJSportslabs role here was to carry out quality control activities on the various facets of the construction of the pitch to ensure a high standard is achieved in terms of materials and workmanship in order to produce a safe, high performance, durable pitch.

Inspection and testing is carried out during the formation, base construction and carpet installation stages during the construction of the football turf. Concerning the formation stage, here the profile of the pitch is inspected as well as the drainage and the size of the pitch.

View of formation trimmed to profile using the post and string line method and right, view of lateral drainage hole.

Regarding the foundation stage (crushed stone layer), the level of the pitch is inspected by performing a straightedge test on the sub-base to determine the evenness of the pitch. Tolerances are very strict with anything above 10 mm considered a failure.During the carpet installation stage, a visit is made to inspect a number of issues including the fill of the carpet (sand and rubber) in terms of distribution and trapped fibre as well an inspection of the seams and the line markings of the carpet to name but a few.

Following this, a snagging list is developed for the contractor whom is required to carry out various repairs if necessary. Once this is completed, the pitch is handed-over, play commences on the pitch to aid in the rubber distribution with FIFA 1 Star testing carried out approximately 6 - 8 weeks after.

FIFA 2 Star at Stellenbosch

Fintrex the longest established specialist sports pitch contractor in SA has been involved in the prestigious Lentelus Campus Sports Development.

This project incorporates a FIFA 2 Star Football turf pitch in which was delivered as part of the Universities commitment to developing football in the run up to the world cup. The football pitch is situated in Stellenbosch at the University Campus and has been very well received by the Community.

UJSPortslabs have been commissioned to test the field in the next few weeks.

New Member for UJSportslabs

Mr. Maphita Sithole recently joined UJSportslabs after completing his BA Sport Psychology degree through the University of Johannesburg earlier this year. Mr. Sithole will be assisting Emma Steyn in performing the quality control as well as the FIFA 1 Star testing.

Welcome Maphitha!