Young athlete achieves her dream

BROOKE Holm has been chosen as the only KZN athlete set to compete in the first ever Junior World Vaulting Championships, which will be held in the Netherlands this August.

This junior vaulter, who is a Grade 10 student at Roseway Waldorf School in Alverston, has worked towards her dream for the opportunity to compete on an international stage against the best junior vaulters in the world.

“Vaulting is my life and I’ve always wanted to compete overseas,” said Brooke.

Brooke started riding when she was three years old and she was six years old when she began the sport of gymnastics on horseback with the Oakridge Vaulting Club in Summerveld.

The qualifying period in South Africa for the championships started in November last year, and the process was very challenging. Brooke had to compete in a prescribed number of competitions to get a qualifying score to be able to be selected, which meant putting in many hours of flexability and strength training to help her get ready.

The KZN girl stayed focused on her dream even when she had to train with a new coach, Lars Hansen from Germany, who was based in Johannesburg. During this training period her parents were supportive of her ambitions as they spent the last six months travelling to Johannesburg twice a month for her training.

Brooke entered the individual section and also teamed up with a young athlete from Johannesburg for the pairs section.

Pairing up with an athlete from a different province meant fewer hours training together, but the two young girls persisted and proved successful by beating the odds.

“Being on a horse with someone else was scary and different as it was my first time training for the pairs section,” said Brooke.

They competed at the South African Vaulting Championships in May this year and won first place. Brooke and her partner, Mel, achieved an internationally-graded qualifying score, for both individual and pairs, allowing them to compete at the up coming World Junior Vaulting Championships.

Brooke will spend four weeks in Germany, training with three of her fellow teammates. Thereafter, they will travel to Ermelo in the Netherlands where the competition will run for five days in August.

She has also received her Protea Colours for vaulting.