Roller Derby returns to Joburg!
Following a Covid-19 induced hiatus, Golden City Rollers’ (GCR) – the Johannesburg’s champion roller derby league – Home Season returns this weekend featuring two brand new roller derby teams – Chrome Chaos and Mercury Mayhem – at União Portuguesa, 64 Eastwood Street, Turffontein with games on the 6th and 20th of May and the third and final game on 24 June.
By Ottis Manyoba
After over a year of training, a whole new generation of athletes is ready to take to the track to skate it out for victory, featuring both veteran and new skaters, these teams showcase the very best of GCR’s current roster.
Games are taking place over May and June, this best-out-of-three battle is guaranteed to feature huge hits, speedy skating, and epic athleticism.
Dianne Silva, chairwoman of both GCR and the WFTDA states: “Our Home Season is an opportunity for Johannesburg to see what our athletes are capable of. While the overarching aim for our league is to compete and rank internationally, Joburg is our home and namesake. We cannot wait to showcase our athleticism, hard work, dedication and of course, MONSTER HITS to our home crowd! Back in our heyday, our home games would pull crowds of over 2000 roller derby fans – we are so thrilled to be bringing that level of energy, intensity, and excitement back!”
She added: “We have some of the strongest players we’ve ever had this year – several of whom only started a year ago! We are incredibly impressed with the level of strength and dedication in our league. These athletes have been giving it their all to bring our home crowd the most exciting roller derby that Joburg’s ever seen!’
Hard-hitting and action-packed, roller derby is a full-contact sport open to all genders but dominated by women worldwide. It is played on quad roller skates and is one of the world’s fastest-growing sports. From 30 US member leagues in 2006, the sport quickly grew to 1,250 amateur leagues on six continents in just seven years – today, it’s mushroomed far beyond such tallies.
The GCR league was the first of its kind to be established on the African continent in 2010 (then called C-Max Roller Derby) and was also the first African member league of the WFTDA – the global governing body of roller derby.
GCR is the undefeated national champion of the sport in South Africa, having won every National Derby Festival since the inception of this national tournament in 2016.
In November, GCR became the first South African roller derby league to compete on international soil, participating in the ‘Road to Mictlān’ tournament in Mexico.
It also won the first pan-African roller derby tournament, ‘A Frican Good Time’ against teams from Cairo, Dubai, Cape Town and Durban with a score of 285-37 in March 2020.
The Home Season games take place at União Portuguesa, 64 Eastwood Street, Turffontein on the 6th and 20th of May, with the third and final game happening on 24 June. Tickets are available via Quicket.
For more information, sponsorship/fundraising opportunities, email: info@goldencityrollers.com
