The opportunity offers over 4 000 athletes from high schools and clubs all over the world to have over 50 000 fans watching them compete on US national television.
“It was shocking and unbelievable at first,” says Kamogelo, “and when my principal broke the news, it took some time for me to digest it, but I finally did.”
Kamogelo, who is one of the school’s star athletes, performed superbly at the super inter-high athletics, which took place earlier this year.
He broke the long and triple jump records at the meeting.
“He is a good long-jumper and has a good attitude towards athletics,” says Miss Khola Te Baerts, Kamogelo’s coach and an educator at SBHS.
“After his second athletics meeting, he had already broken his personal best of 13.72m, twice,” she adds.
“I am certainly very proud of him. I find him motivated and humble, so he really deserves this opportunity,” she says proudly.
Kamogelo received sponsorship for a part of his trip; however, he was unfortunately unable to raise the balance, due to the time constraints.
Miss Te Baerts has, however, said that they have requested that he makes use of the opportunity next year, when he will, hopefully have raised the outstanding balance for the trip.
“We have put in the request to allow him to go next year, so we will see,” she says.
Kamogelo greets the possible participation in next year’s meeting with great optimism and a lot of humility. “I don’t want to grow a big head and say that I want to come out first place,” he says. “Instead, I’ll say I would at least like to make top 10, but even if I don’t, I will be grateful to have been given the wonderful experience.”
When asked about the future, going forward, Kamogelo simply smiles and says, confidently, “Let’s see how it goes!”
