Pretoria - Mamelodi west cricket sports ground was abuzz with excitement during the relaunch of athletics club at the weekend, which attracted at least 200 children from the local primary and secondary schools.
The activities at the club, which included sporting codes such as tennis, running, cricket and swimming, were brought to a standstill two years back because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A 35-year-old club coach, Bongani Thusago, said the idea behind reviving the sports was to cultivate fresh talents that would be able to represent the township one day at the national stage.
“The purpose was to grow sports in the township because sports at schools are only happening according to seasons. Even if I could one day be able to put at least one child into a South African athletic team I would be very happy,” he said.
Thusang was also pleased with the turnout, believing it bode well for the brighter future of sports in Mamelodi.
He said he endeavoured to do his part of community upliftment by taking away children from the streets and most importantly from the temptation of doing drugs and prevent their talents from going to waste.
“I believe that if I can carry on with this I can take a lot of children away from the streets, from doing drugs. I can show them that we can not always afford to see sports development in town.
We can bring them here and those from town can travel here to see talents. Why do we have to always travel to Centurion every time to do what we can do here?” he said.
A dedicated athlete himself, Thusang said he would soon make a comeback to running with a goal of setting an example to the would-be athletes under his tutelage.
He said he was mindful of the challenges that would come with working with 200 children and that he would like to have more coaches who were passionate about sports coming forward to assist.
He also pleaded for sponsorship that would go towards programmes aimed at grooming young talents in various sporting codes.
Participants were happy to be given certificates and fruits as tokens of appreciation at the end of the relaunch.
Pretoria News