AGE 15 usually sees teens midway through their high school career but Bluffite Kayla Ribbink is already cracking the glass ceiling.
The teen represented SA in the girls 16 to 17-year age group at the 2018 Troutbeck ATU Sprint Triathlon African Cup in Zimbabwe last weekend.
The prolific sportswoman achieved a bronze in the triathlon event in the age category, which saw her compete against older athletes. Kayla was also buoyed by her win in the 750m individual swim event.
When her RSA triathlon suit arrived last week, it finally became a reality that she is starting to achieve great heights. The up-and-coming triathlete started doing a few Mudman races when she was little but says 2016 was when she really started enjoying triathlons.
What makes the charismatic teen’s achievement even more exceptional is that it comes despite her affliction with petite mal seizures, a condition which she controls through medication.
“I love to run and I’ve been swimming since I was little. I love that it’s a little bit of everything – all I had to do was learn to cycle.”
According to her mother, Jetaime she faced several health obstacles early on. “Kayla had low muscle tone, a weak core, sensory integration and a host of other issues as a toddler, so she started swimming lessons early to get her physically active and work her core,” said Jetaime. “She was diagnosed with petite mal seizures as well as auditory processing.”
Despite these, the grade 10 Durban Girls College (DGC) pupil has already proven her determination to reach her goals. She had earlier set her sights on securing a full scholarship for her sporting prowess, a feat she achieved when she was scooped up by DGC.
The multi-talented sports ace also participates in lifesaving with Durban Surf; plays hockey and belongs to the swim and cross-country teams at school. She plays first team and KZN waterpolo and also participates in biathle and biathlons.
“I recently won the Youth Mandela Day Tri, which was nice as it was my last race as a youth. I moved up a division in September to sprint – 800m swim, 20km cycle and 5km run. I came second in TinMan #1 about three weeks ago.”
While Kayla “never dreamed” she would be selected, she admits to having worked exceptionally hard despite a gruelling schedule at school and in her many sporting disciplines.
“My mom manages everything – she picks my sisters and I up from school at 5.20am every morning to train at 5.30am. We are back at school by 7.15am and then again after our school sport commitments in the afternoon, so we finish anytime between 6pm and 6.30pm. Because we board, we have set prep times to study and are in bed by 9.30pm.”
Her weekends see her add in extra training hours, and she meets with her subject tutors catches up on any other school work or study.
Her selection to the SA triathlon team was as a result of her KZN champs participation, where she was identified as part of the Youth Olympic Games programme in 2017, along with her sister Kira.
To maintain her optimal fitness, Kayla runs track up to four times a week, does a parkrun after a 50km cycle with ECC on Saturdays, cycles in an altitude chamber up to twice a week, swims almost daily and tries to maintain her strength with two training sessions a week.
So what are the future goals of this go-getter sportswoman? “Now I’m focused on hopefully going overseas to study and race triathlon or play waterpolo – hopefully even both.”
It invariably takes a lot of support to reach Kayla’s heights. She thanked Paul Muller and David Louis for always being a phone call away for help; Sandile Shange who recently came 11th in the Cape Town ITU who “chases me around People’s Park on the bike”; Quinton who pushes her on the track; Debbie McCleod for the swim programmes; her various DGC coaches and especially two-time Olympian Kate Roberts who is her online triathlon coach and who travelled to Durban in the holidays to prepare her for KZN champs.
“And especially to my mom who is up at 3.45am every morning to get everything ready and pick Kira and I up from boarding school.”
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