Gear up for teen dynamo set to shine Youngster shows great promise
3-year-old Liyema Tele has stolen the hearts of many with her athletics skills. This comes after the youngster showed spectacular talent in all the races she has featured in this year and she is now preparing for the Border championships in August.
Move over Caster Semenya – here comes Kwelera’s Liyema, who is believed to be talented beyond her years and she now races with an older age group.
According to her coach Freeman Mvutu, who is also the club owner of Rising Stars Youth Development Athletics Club, the youngster now races with the U15 group because she is too good for her own age category.
“She is a very promising young girl. When she runs you can be certain she will win,” the coach said.
“Now she competes with an older age group because she is much faster than her own age group,” he explained.
Mvutu said his intentions for starting the club were to keep youngsters away from bad habits such as crime, teenage pregnancy and drinking.
However, he explained the club suffers from severe financial constraints which mostly results in the young ones missing out on key opportunities.
Liyema also had to miss out on a great opportunity when she had to miss out on an Athletics South Africa tournament held earlier this year in Potchefstroom.
“The most painful thing that happened was when she (Liyema) had made the Eastern Cape team to feature in the South Africa champs earlier this year, but because her school couldn’t pay a lousy R20 for her to travel to her pick-up point, she missed out,” Mvutu said despondently.
Liyema’s older sister Aviwe Tele said she was proud of her sister because she is totally committed to the sport and hopes she pursues her passion for the sport.
“I am happy for her. Every time she comes home with a medal or trophy I always celebrate with her because I know she deserves it because of the effort she puts into her athletics,” the proud sister said.
Liyema said she plans on making her mark in athletics no matter what happens.
“I want to be like Caster Semenya one day. That’s why I’ll always do athletics,” she said.
The youngster has also featured in the Heroes and Berlin November 5km fun run where she won first place in both.
She has 12 medals since starting athletics last year.