National student cycling champs

Nine of South Africa's top universities will gather in Port Elizabeth next week when the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University hosts the national student cycling championships.

The University Sports South Africa event, presented by Bestmed, starts on June 25 with the mountain bike events and the opening stage of the three-day road tour.

The reigning champion men's and women's teams, from the University of Pretoria and the Potchefstroom campus of North-West University respectively, will return to defend their titles against some of the country's top up-and-coming talent.

According to NMMU's cycling manager Theresa Le Roux, this will be only the second time that the university has hosted the event. The last occasion was in 2008, when the host institution also walked away with the overall honours.