FROM a young age the 2025 SPAR Superstars winner of the grand prize, Bradley Leppan from Hillcrest High School, showed commitment and dedication to sports, which continue to this day with him dedicating many hours towards training.

This was shared by his parents who looked on with pride as Bradley recently received a SPAR voucher of R7000 from the retailer’s KZN advertising and sponsorship manager Nozipho Mkhize.

“Are you sure you want to go to swimming today,” Bradley’s mother, Megan (who is an educator at the school) jokingly shared as she recollected the days when the young winner seemed to drag his parents away from the opportunity of an off day.

“He has never missed a day of school,” said Bradley’s father, Dave, a Station Commander at Gillitts Fire Station.

Visibly excited by his prize, which included being voted the SPAR Superstars quarterly winner, Bradley shared his hopes for the coming year, which are to repeat the feats he achieved in 2025.

“Hopefully next year I will be going to SA Open Water Championships, SA Senior nationals and SA Junior nationals all over again,” said Bradley.

At the Open Water Champs in March this year, he placed in the top 10 in the 5km event in the 14–16 age group, improving his previous personal best time by three minutes and shaving just over five minutes off his personal best in the 3km event.

Bradley subsequently qualified to compete in the SA Junior Nationals where he achieved two top 10 finishes, again improving his personal best times across the board.

He also qualified for the SA Short Course which took place at the end of September.

In November, he swam in the Capital K at Midmar.

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In August he competed in the KZN Modern Pentathlon, taking part in both the KZN Triathle, where he placed first, and KZN Biathle Championships, where he placed second, qualifying him to attend the World Triathle and Biathle Championships in Mossel Bay in December.

He competed in the 2025 SA Triathle and Biathle Championships in Nelspruit in October.

In the Tri Series TINMAN events he placed first in the events he competed in this year.

The deputy principal at the school, Sibongiseni Ndebele, congratulated Bradley for winning the SPAR Superstar competition and for his stellar sporting achievements.

Ndebele also applauded the superstar’s coach, Brent White, for the amazing work he does for the school.

In closing, the deputy principal thanked SPAR and the Highway Mail for running the Superstars competition.

Nicole Bérichon – business manager for Caxton, Durban, said the SPAR Superstars are about recognising local talent, working in partnership with the retailer.

“If it wasn’t for our partners SPAR we wouldn’t be able to showcase all this amazing talent,” said Bérichon, who thanked Mkhize, SPAR and all the schools that have contributed towards SPAR Superstars.

Bérichon and Mkhize were positive about the competition’s success in the coming year.

“This long-lasting partnership between Caxton and SPAR KZN has been really amazing, and thank you for publishing all the stories and highlighting the young stars, and what is amazing is that as a brand we are really passionate about young children because education is one of our pillars that we stand by at SPAR, and to see the stories and to see how disciplined Bradley is, is really humbling,” said Mkhize, who encouraged more schools to make submissions towards the SPAR Superstars competition in 2026.

 

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