Reinald leaps into athletics this year
DOUGLASDALE – 15-year-old Reinald Tshibumbu from Douglasdale has stepped up his athletics game this year as he focuses on honing his skills in long jump and the 100m.
One local athlete is pushing himself to improve his sporting abilities with great success.
A 15 year-old home-schooled learner from Douglasdale, Reinald Tshibumbu, has flourished in the 2019/2020 athletics season. Being a lover of all sports since he was seven years old, he decided that he wanted to focus on athletics from the age of 13. Since then he has been improving dramatically and breaking records.
Last year at the South African Christian School’s Sports Association National Track and Field Champs, he broke most of the U14 records and just missed out on the junior Victor Ludorum Trophy.
Reinald enjoys most of the jumping and sprinting events but in the 2020 season he decided to focus on long jump and the 100m, as these are his best disciplines. After the excitement of the 2019 season, Reinald wanted more, so he decided to take part in all the Puma School of Speed meetings, travelling around the country.
He also joined the local athletics club, Fitness From Africa Athletics Club, and joined their coaching sessions held at Fourways High School.
This paid off at the final meeting before the Central Gauteng Athletics (CGA) Championships, where Reinald achieved a spectacular jump of 6.49m, his personal best. He then competed at the CGA Club Championships on 14 March at University of Johannesburg, and after another great competition he earned himself a gold medal and top spot on the podium.
Despite being so young, Reinald had to conquer a few injuries this year.
“The day before my first sub-youth meeting, I cut my toe on the starting blocks as I did not have spikes. I quickly learnt that being a sprinter, I will need to get the right spikes and that I need to look after my feet.”
Another and more challenging setback was when he injured his knee doing high jump which put him out of training for months.
“Reinald only started competing at club level last year and has already achieved so much,” Marcel Viljoen of FFA said. “We can’t wait to see what the rest of the year will bring and we are excited to see many more personal bests and records being broken.”
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