Local sprinter achieves personal best time

LONEHILL – Kieren Louw of FFA has a stellar sprinting season, achieving his personal best time in two different categories before Covid-19 affected sporting competition.

April 29, 2020

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Kieren Louw, who trains at the Lonehill-based FFA, comes from a soccer background but now making tracks in the world of running. Photo: FFA Coaching

It’s been a year of growth for one locally-trained runner, and he’s not afraid to sprint his heart out.

Kieren Louw is making a name for himself on the tracks in Gauteng this year. Coming from a soccer background, this Grade 11 leaner from St John’s College in Houghton and proud member of the Lonehill-based Fitness For Africa (FFA) Athletics Club, has established himself as a sprinting force to be reckoned with. Kieren has slowly improved from strength to strength over both the 100m and 200m sprint distances this year. Every young sprinter dreams of the chance to run under 10 seconds for the 100m and young KJ, as he is known to family and friends, did just that this year par excellence.

“I realised that in order to achieve my goals, during the off-season I needed to continue to train with my coach at [the University of Johannesburg] to prepare for the athletics club season,” he said.

“In season, I maintain my fitness levels by training three times a week, going to gym on non-running days, and trying to do as many meetings as possible to get race fitness.”

There are mostly club meetings on Saturdays. This year, KJ also enjoyed running the Puma School of Speed meetings because he was able to compete against a diverse field of runners and it ‘gives one great exposure’. He concentrated on the 200m but more specifically the 100m sprints during the Puma meetings.

At the outset the goal for 2020 was to run in the finals of both the 100m and 200m races at the South African Championships scheduled for late March 2020. KJ was indeed selected to represent Central Gauteng Athletics at SA’s, but due to Covid-19 regulations, the championships were cancelled.

Even with a greatly reduced season, for this young man it was a very successful one as he achieved personal bests both for the 100m (10.69 seconds), and the 200m (21.59 seconds).

As for so many athletes right now, he is trying to maintain some degree of fitness while in lockdown at home and dreaming of becoming even faster!