Sunette Stella Viljoen (born 6 October 1983) is a South African sportswoman who has represented her country in both

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

and athletics. In athletics, she competes as a

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the ...

er and has won an Olympic silver medal ( in 2016) and two

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 British Empire Game ...

gold medals ( in 2006 and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

), as well as medals in various other competitions. As a cricketer, she represented the

South African national team South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

between 2000 and 2002, including at the 2000 World Cup in New Zealand.

Early life and cricket career

Viljoen was born in

Rustenburg Rustenburg (; , Afrikaans and Dutch: ''City of Rest'') is a city at the foot of the Magaliesberg mountain range. Rustenburg is the most populous city in North West province, South Africa (549,575 in 2011 and 626,522 in the 2016 census). In 2 ...

, Transvaal (present-day North West). She attended

Die Hoërskool Rustenburg Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...

and her first language is

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans g ...

. Viljoen made her international cricket debut for South Africa in June 2000, in a

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...

(ODI) match against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

.Women's ODI matches played by Sunnette Viljoen
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 19 August 2016. She was 17 years and 10 days old at the time, becoming the youngest woman to play ODI cricket for South Africa (a record since broken by several others). Later in the year, Viljoen was selected in the South African squad for the 2000 Women's World Cup in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

. A right-handed all-rounder, she appeared in all eight of her team's matches at the tournament, and against England scored 54

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

, which was to be the highest score of her ODI career. Against

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in a later match, she took 3/27 from ten overs, the best bowling figures of her international career. Viljoen's final international matches for South Africa came in March 2002, in a home series against

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. She played four ODIs and the only Test match of her career, in which she scored 17 runs in the first innings and 71 in the second (the third-highest score of the match). In December 2021, Viljoen made a return to cricket, joining Northerns with the aim of playing for her country again.

Athletics career

Viljoen won gold at the

2009 Summer Universiade The 2009 Summer Universiade, officially known as the XXV Summer Universiade, was celebrated in Belgrade, Serbia from July 1 to 12, 2009. The event has also been organised by a range of co-host cities mostly in Vojvodina (Serbian Autonomous Provi ...

in Belgrade, throwing 62.52 metres. At the qualifying round, she set a new African record 65.46 metres, eclipsing her compatriot

Justine Robbeson Justine Gail Robbeson (born 15 May 1985 in Benoni) is a South African athlete who specialised in the javelin throw. She previously competed in the heptathlon, achieving a personal best of 5868 in 2004. Justine attended ...

's record 63.49m achieved in Potchefstroom in February 2008. Viljoen's throw was over three meters further than her previous PB of 62.24 m achieved also at the February 2008 meeting in Potchefstroom. On 14 June 2010, she broke her own record with 66.38 m at the Josef Odložil Memorial in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. Viljoen won silver at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, Korea on 2 September 2011. With a throw of 68.38m, she also set a new African record. She improved her own African record to 69.35m at the

Adidas Grand Prix The USA Track & Field, USATF New York Grand Prix is an annual athletics meeting held at Icahn Stadium in New York City, United States. First started in 2005 as the Reebok Grand Prix and then Adidas Grand Prix, it was previously one of the IAAF ...

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in June 2012 Having failed to reach the final at the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and 2008 Summer Olympics, she finished fourth at the 2012 Summer Olympics, only 0.38 cm off the bronze medal-winning mark. At the 2013 World Championships in Athletics, which was held in Moscow, Viljoen took only the 6th place with a mark of 63.58 meters. In 2014, she placed second at the

. Later that year she won the

African Championships An African Championship is a top level international sports competition between African athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. List of Championships ;Athletics * African Championships in At ...

with a result of 65.32m. Viljoen won a

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, e ...

, coming in second to Israel's Marharyta Dorozhon, at the IAAF Diamond League

Bislett Games The Bislett Games is an annual track and field meeting at the Bislett Stadium in Oslo, Norway. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it is now part of the Diamond League. History The first international athletics meeting at Bisl ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, Norway, on 11 June 2015. Viljoen won the silver medal in the women's javelin at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

Competition record

References

External links