SHIFAAN RYKLIEF
When Megan lined up in lane two at the Southern Zone Section A inter-school’s athletics meet in Green Point, last month, she had a certain confidence and seemed as if she’d already seen the outcome of the race.
Athletes are often told to visualise their race and one could see that Megan was mentally prepared, as she put her hands together and looked up towards the blue sky, before kneeling down to get on her mark.
And, as the gun went off, the Grade 12 Fish Hoek High School pupil got off to a perfect start and made her way around the first bend. As she approached the second bend, she started to pick up the pace before shifting up another gear on the final stretch, and crossed the finish line first.
Megan performed well in all three of her events which saw her qualify for the Southern Zone Championships, which took place at Vygieskraal stadium, at the weekend.
“At the inter-schools I won my 100m, 200m and 400m races. Then at the zonals I came first in both the 200m and 400m events again, but decided not to risk injury by doing the 100m as well,” said Megan.
“The 400m is my race and that’s what I’m really good at. I also broke my school’s record in the 400m from 1976. The previous record was 64.7 and my time was 64.2,” she said.
Megan, who started out as a long distance runner before making the switch to sprinting, is quite the busy bee off the track as well.
Last year was the first time she made the cut for the WP athletics team, which she said was an eye opener on the talent out there.
“It was a good experience being part of the WP team and I had no idea how high the level of competition really was. And, because of that, I never prepared well and did not get the results I wanted in order to go to the next round of the champs.
“When I’m not on the track, then I’m on the hockey turf because I’m part of the school’s first team, and also do cross country. For cross country I narrowly missed out on a WP spot last year, where I won a bronze medal at the zonals,” said Megan.