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HILLTOP RUNNERS

Coached by Björn Alexander (Director) through an NPO called Hilltop Legacy, we started coaching athletes from September 2015.

 

This coaching initiative exists to create an environment of safety, acceptance & mentoring of athletes to see them gain a healthy identity and develop into peer leaders in the disadvantaged community of Paarl-East and ultimately in South Africa. Having grown up in the ghetto’s himself, Björn knows firsthand the challenges these kids are facing and we’ve seen some incredible progress!

 

We do weekly training sessions, participate in races and gather at safe training facilities. We provide supplements to ensure alertness for training and school concentration, and where possible we provide running shoes.

 

All these athletes are slotted into local church communities and annually most of them attends the Hillsong church summer camp to expose them to various cultures and develop their leadership skills.

Due to hard academic work and being excellent athletes, we’ve since seen three of our athletes gain privileged entry to Paarl Gimnasium High.

 

 

Athlete performances

2016 Highlights

  • ONE athlete selected into Boland Provincial Cross Country team.

 

2017 Highlights

  • FOUR  athletes selected into the Provincial Track team
  • FIVE athletes selected to represent their province at the National Cross Country  championships
  • Gawain qualified and flew to Pretoria to run at the Tuks top 10 athletics meeting
  • Gawain wins a Bronze medal at South African Athletics Championships, clocking 1 minute and 58 seconds for boys aged 14! 

 

2018 Highlights

  • FIVE athletes selected to the Boland Track provincial team 
  • TWO got selected to the National School Champs where they ended 7th & 13th fastest in South Africa respectively. 
  • Conwill broke a 49 year old school record
  • Conwill became the Boland Champion over 800 & 1500meters
  • Conwill finished 6th (800m) and 7th (1500m) for under 18 boys in South Africa  
  • Conwill and Gawain qualified and flew to Pretoria to run at the Tuks top 10 athletics meeting
  • Nolan ranked 10th fastest in South Africa for boys under 18 over the 2000 meters steeplechase

 

We’re super excited for the upcoming Cross Country season…

 

Stay up to date with our athletes by following @Bjorn_Alexander