Southerners and Alberton rider in Team SA for Rio Olympics
Four members of Team South African for the Rio Olympics are from Alberton and the Southern Suburbs.
FOUR athletes from Alberton and the South have been selected to represent South Africa in their respective sporting codes at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Alberton’s Vincent Breet will join the rowing team while Kyle Dodd, who is well-known in the BMX riding fraternity, has also been included in Team South Africa. Two athletes from the South, the cyclist Daryl Impey and track athlete Alyssa Conley will also join the squad.
The 2016 Olympic Games will take place in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil from August 5 to 21.
On Thursday, July 14, South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (SASCOC) announced the full squad of Team South Africa that will represent the country at this year’s global spectacle. The final number of athletes competing at Rio will be a total of 137.
Over the years Caxton South has widely reported on these athletes and would like to extend a congratulations and wish them all the best for the Rio Olympics by presenting a short synopsis on each athlete to underline their exceptional achievements over the years.
Dodd was born and bred in the South but became a household name at the Alrode BMX Club at which he has made name in the BMX world.
He has been riding since an early age and set his sights high. The rider also comes from a BMX family that supports him all the way.
He currently races in the men’s elite category and has travelled across the world to maintain a high level of racing. The most memorable race for him was, winning the junior men’s final at Super Nationals, in Desoto, Texas in 2011.
Dodd has proven he is Africa’s top BMX racer after successfully defending his elite title at the 2015 African Continental BMX Championships held in Harare, Zimbabwe, on November 14, 2015.
Dodd dominated the African Continental BMX Championships, winning both the Time Trial and Super Time Trial events and subsequently going on to win all his heats in the main event, eventually crowning him the African Champion. In 2015 he also claimed his third consecutive elite South African national title at the 2015 South African BMX Championships. Through both events, Dodd has earned valuable UCI points, edging him closer to turning his dream of representing South Africa at the 2016 Rio Olympics into a reality.
Also born and bred in Alberton is Vincent Breet who was named as part of the 2016 rowing team going to Rio. Vincent is in the M4-boat which qualified in Switzerland in Lucerne earlier this year. He attended Brackenhurst Primary School and matriculated at St Benedict’s in Bedfordview. Breet is currently studying at Harvard University in Boston and is a third-year bio-med engineering student.
He put his studies on hold for 18 months to train and qualify for the South African rowing team and will return to Harvard in September in time for the fall semester.
Breet and his teammates, David Hunt, Jonty Smith and Jake Green, qualified for the Rio Olympics with only two places in the men’s four left.
The seasoned Daryl Impey from the South will represent the country in the cycling road race mens category.
Impey, who comes from a well-known cycling family in the South, has a long list of achievements which he built up throughout the years, but the most memorable one was that of Le Tour De France when Impey cruised to a stage six victory in the Tour de France on July 4, 2013, when he became the first South African leader of Tour de France, to finish five seconds ahead of his Orica-GreenEDGE teammate Simon Garrans, who graciously surrendered the yellow jersey to him. In 2015, Impey had to abandon the Tour de France after being involved in a massive crash in the third stage.
Currently Impey is racing worldwide in various events but he will fulfil his dreams of representing Team SA at the Rio Olympics.
The golden girl of athletics from the South, Alyssa Conley, has overcome many obstacles in her athletic career to also make her lifelong dream to participate in the Olympic Games come true.
At the age of 25 she has made a remarkable comeback and has set up her personal best in both the 100m – 11.23 in Gavardo, Italy on May 29 and in the 200m of 22.84 in Durban on June 26.
She has completed her undergraduate degree in sports psychology and her honours degree in sports management at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).
Conley has represented South Africa in different levels and championships since she started running at age seven. Some of these achievements include:
- Pacific School Games champion 100m.
- Youth World Championships finalist 100m and 200m.
- Junior African Champion 200m.
- Senior National Champion 100m and 200m.
- Reigning provincial champion 100m and 200m for 12 years straight.
- Silver medal in the 200m at the 2016 African Championships.
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