Local athlete overcomes disability
Dewalt Pretorius is Randfontein's disabled shot put champion.
Randfontein has a new champ in town and he is going from strength to strength on the field.
Dewalt Pretorius, 32, is a shot put prodigy who recently won a gold medal in the F38 category at the Nedbank National Championships for the Physically Disabled in the Free State earlier this month.
Dewalt has been through to the championships for the past three years and this year is the first time he has come out triumphant.
Dewalt is disabled as a result of a car accident a few years ago after which he landed up in a coma. He explains that while he was in the coma, he weighed approximately 40kg, he couldn’t walk, talk, or do anything for himself.
When he started healing and was able to walk and control his movements, he started shot put. He said he watched Hermien van Coller, a teacher and coach at Hoërskool Jan Viljoen show a pupil the correct technique and what he saw, he practiced on his own and he threw much further. He then approached Hermien to coach him and years later Dewalt is the proud winner of a gold medal at the Nedbank National Championships.
Dewalt says he owes all his success to God and then to his coach, Hermien.
I thank God above all. He carried me through.
“I also would like to thank my coach, without this woman I would have never succeeded.”
Dewalt has now qualified for international competitions and is now awaiting invitations to the bigger games.
Shot put is just the beginning for Dewalt, he will now go on to train for discus and javelin. His discus coach will be Robbie van Coller, Hermien’s husband who is also a teacher and coach at Jannas making the pair Randfontein’s field power couple.
Dewalt would like to send a special thank you to Carel Christie, organiser of North West disabled sports and member of the Rolling Giants (North West) which is the region and club Dewalt falls under.
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