Leshen bags sport award
LESHEN named
Pillay was
Let’s Play Sportsman of the Year at the annual awards day held in the Presidential Suite at Kingspark Rugby Stadium.
The pint-sized maestro in the pool beat off a strong challenge from other hopefuls who had earlier in the year won the sports personality of the month award. This initiative, jointly hosted by our sister paper Isolezwe and the pay channel is intended to promote sporting excellence among the youth.
The 13-year-old Glenwood Prep pupil’s achievements in 2017 was formidable.
Leshen participated in the SA Junior National Swimming Championships in March where he won gold in the 200m freestyle and a silver medal in the 400m event.
He then took part in the SA Schools National Championships, winning four gold, two silver and one bronze medal.
Having stamped his dominance in the pool on a national level, Leshen then qualified to participate in the Ireland Age Group Championships where he scooped two gold, one silver and one bronze medal on the international stage.
But all this success does not come without sacrifice and hard work.
Introduced to the pool at the tender age of three because his parents wanted him to be water-safe, Leshen, took to water instantly.
“I was a hyper kid, so splashing around in the pool was like an adrenaline rush for me,” said Leshen.
His progress was rapid and coaches started to take note of him and introduced Leshen to competitive swimming when he was 10.
“I train twice a day. I’m up in the morning at around 4am and in the pool an hour later. I train until around 6.30am and then rush back home to get ready for school.
“I’m back in the pool by 5pm and train for a further two hours.”
Leshen has been through a number of coaches and currently trains under the watchful eye of Debbie McLeod.
On his trip to Ireland he said he was initially nervous about competing internationally.
“After the initial events I realised that I could beat them if I put my mind to it. However, I was surprised to win two gold medals at that event.”
Leshen admires American swimming legend Michael Phelps. His next goal is to make the SA team to take part in the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
On winning the SuperSport Sportsman of the Year Award, Leshen said he was surprised when his name was called out.
“Winning this award has encouraged me to do better. It shows that age and height doesn’t matter.”
POST Content editor Deena Pillay, who was among the panel that chose the overall winner in the competition said the high calibre of entries made it a difficult task.
“This is the third year that we have hosted the competition, in association with SuperSport and the quality of entries have become better and better,” said Pillay.
“In addition, the fact that the monthly winners participated in different sporting codes made the choice of an overall winner that much more difficult.”
Leshen won a keepsake trophy and R2 000 worth of prizes. Devendren Govender who earned his Protea colours for karate was placed second and Simrn Rajakumar was placed third. Rajakumar represented KZN for hockey and cricket.