La Rochelle Girls’ High School athlete Kylie Basson has been reaching new heights on the athletics track.
Having turned 16 in February, she has been competing and winning major track events countrywide in the u-18 age group.
At the 4M championships Kylie won gold in the 200 m, 100 m and 100 m hurdles.
She represented Boland Central at the Boland Champs winning gold in the 200 m and 100 m hurdles and silver in the 400 m hurdles.
Kylie then went on to representing Boland at Western Cape Champs held in Paarl winning gold in the 200 m final and 100 m hurdles.
She also represented Boland at the ASA Junior Track & Field National Championships in Pretoria, bringing home silver in 200 m final.
At the SA Schools Athletics Competition for High Schools held in Paarl, Kylie won bronze in the 200 m and 100 m hurdles, silver in Swedish relay and silver in the 4 x 100 relay.
And most recently, representing Boland at the ASA Senior Championships in Pietermaritzburg last weekend competing against seniors at the age of only 16 years in the 200 m. She came third in her heat, fifth in her semi-final, just missing out at a spot in the final and being placed 10th overall. Here she competed against national champions such as Miranda Coetzee, Shirley Nekhubui, Tamzin Thomas and Kayla La Grange.
Kylie also represented La Rochelle at the prestigious Penn Relays in Pennsylvania (United States) last year where their relay team finished 15th out of 300 teams from across the USA and Jamaica. This was in the 4 x 400 relays.
Penn Relays are hosted by the University of Pennsylvania. It’s one of the largest and oldest track meetings in the US where ±15 000 athletes compete over a three day period.
Kylie is in Grade 10 and started with athletics when she was nine years old. She’s currently being coached by the well-known coaches (in the athletics community) André and Marna van den Burgh. For now she’s just enjoying athletics but her ultimate dream would be to one day represent South Africa at the highest level and to qualify for the Olympic Games.