William Gilbert attended an awards ceremony in Sandton on May 13 where he received his green blazer and tie.

This was a very happy ceremony to attend for family and friends. After a finger meal, the boys gathered their fishing bags and headed to OR Tambo airport.

ALSO READ: Help William reach for his dream

The team flew to Madrid, and after a short stop over, to Prague. The South African team was hosted in a cottage on the Vltava River after been picked up at the airport by the Czech youth team parents.

The Czech team spent the next three days in the river guiding the SA boys. Fishing took up all the sunlight hours – at night the boys had to tie flies for the next day. Each member of the team had a Czech member assigned to guide and help them – communication was a problem even though they do English as a second language.

After the practice they left for the competition waters in East Bohemia and stopped off at the Hanaf factory-shop, buying equipment at great prices.

They stayed near the Chrudimka River in a backpackers lodge, equivalent here. The food was very different to what they are used to – soup for breakfast or rye bread and cheese.

The competition waters were different with very difficult fishing. The weather was overcast and cool. Having to stand in the water wearing waders was cold.

Team manager Aubrey Ferreira- remarked the fishing was tough but the SA team did great and was an amazing opportunity all round for the boys

During the competition William caught many fish and ended up 29th out of 42 contestants. The awards were special for William as his guide Eric won the competition. After the week spent in Czech, the boys said farewell to Czech and new friends and headed back to Prague.

The team returned to South Africa on May 23. William and his family would like to thank the community of Estcourt and surrounding towns for all the sponsors that made this dream come true.

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