Sarah is an exceptional sprinter
The young sprinter's coach says that although she is U14, she was the first schoolgirl to run the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints at national level and get into the finals.
SARAH Reed is an exceptional athlete, achieving way beyond her years. The 14-year-old is currently the fastest female sprinter in KZN high schools, in the 100m and 200m, and second fastest in the 400m.
She also won Best Female Athlete of the KZN Championships, which takes into account points scored based on the level of performance in each event and is also across all age groups (up to U20).
The Grade Eight learner at Curro Hillcrest loved to run from a young age.
“She is disciplined, determined and focused beyond her years. She is focused on achieving her ultimate goal of competing for South Africa as an adult on the international athletics circuit,” said her coach, Lux Gordhan.
As an eight-year-old, she shone at her school in both cross country and sprinting. During her time at her previous school, her coach developed her love for running, mainly in cross country and middle distance, which built her a solid base and meant she excelled in cross country and was beating girls three and four years her senior.
During this time, she also excelled on the track and was selected for SA Christian schools, and that really showed her what she could do.
Inspiration and goals
She said her goals are to get to the Olympics one day and compete internationally.
“I realised in 2019 that I really loved sprinting but continued to run cross country, as well.”
In 2021, she started to excel and was the KZN 100m and 200m U13 champion as a 12-year-old. At the ASA SA Champs, she made the 100m final and came 8th and landed up 11th in the 200m.
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In 2022, she again was the 100m and 200m KZN champion and was awarded the Best Female Athlete of the meeting.
At SA Schools Champs, she now came 5th in the 100m and 9th in the 200m. She continued to improve, and at the Athletics South Africa (ASA) SA Champs, she came third in the 200m. Overall, in the year, she ranked second in the 100m and third in the 200m in South Africa.
This year, the young champ will once again compete against 15-year-olds as a 14-year-old.
At the ASA SA Champs, which were held in March, she came 5th in the 100m and 8th in the 200m. In the 200m, she ranked 19th out of 80 girls up to the U20 age group.
At the SA Schools Champs held in April, she only ran the 400m and came 6th in a time of 58:43 seconds.
Over the two championships, Sarah was the only athlete to make it to all three finals.
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Sarah said her short-term goal is to medal at a national championship in 2023/2024.
“My long-term goal is to be able to run overseas, representing South Africa as a senior and at the Olympics,” she said.
Her coach said it is always a pleasure to talk about Sarah.
“She is a world-class athlete because as an U14, she ran a time of 12:55 seconds for the 100m in the recent KZN champs – she ran faster than all other girls in the U16, U18 and U20 age groups.
“The time was faster than the second-best time from an U20 girl, which was 12:94 seconds.
“She’s obviously got lots of talent. What stands out for me is that she is very dedicated to her training and mature beyond her years, and more importantly, very focused at training sessions. I have much admiration for her. She has wonderful parents who understand long-term-athlete development. Although she is U14, she was the first schoolgirl to run the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints at national level and get into the finals.”
In addition, Gordhan said Sarah still needs to grow up a bit as an athlete.
“She is still young, and given time, she will be South Africa’s best, and given more time, she will be an international athlete,” said the proud coach.
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