Toti gymnast, Christopher Campos (15) was crowned the men’s national artistic champion for the age level 13 to 15-years at the 2014 South African National Championships in Klerksdorp in July.
This returns the title to the Kingsway High School grade 9 pupil, who won it in 2012.
Christopher, who moved to Toti from Johannesburg in 2011, started gymnastics at the age of three.
“I started competing at the age of six,” he said. “I stopped soon after, but my coach convinced my mother that I had potential and should continue.”
Christopher repaid his coach’s confidence by being selected for the Gauteng team every year since the age of nine.
Since moving to Toti, he has made the KZN team every year, and he is the Pinetown Gymnastics Club champ for the third consecutive year.
He trains every day, except Sundays at Lahee Park in Pinetown under the guidance of coach, Jesse Kitzen. “KZN’s standard is on par with Gauteng. We have a number of national champs at our club. We compete in six categories – pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar and, my favourite, floor. I am now focused on making the SA team to compete at the junior Olympics in 2016.”