There is a quote by Robert Kiyosaki that goes: “If you’re going to be a winner in life, you have to constantly go beyond your best.”
Eckhart Potgieter, a young man from Vryheid, took this quote to heart and is constantly going beyond his best on the athletics track. This 18-year-old made his debut in athletics when he was only four years old and received his first-ever medallion in the form of a cookie.
In grade 1, he officially started his athletics career when he competed in sprints and broke several records.
He was also crowned as the Champion of Champions record holder, as he won every race in his entire primary school career at Lucas Meyer Primêre Skool.
Potgieter attended Hoërskool Pionier for two years before his parents decided to move him to Afrikaans Hoër Seunsskool in Pretoria.
After his first athletics meeting, his coach saw potential and talent, and began to train him with a more rigid programme.
Potgieter advanced from the B team to the A team and had the opportunity to compete on a larger scale, where he currently holds more than 20 records in Gauteng and other provinces at school level. Last year, he qualified for the African Juniors Championships and won a silver medal in both the 100 metres and 200 metres in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
This year, he improved and stepped up to the plate when he was part of a relay team that improved the South African School record to 40.51 seconds. He and his coach, Riana Raath, have worked hard during the 2020 season to get him in tip-top form.
Earlier this year, at the Gauteng North trials, he ran his personal best in the 100 metres with a time of 10.22 seconds, and a time of 20.53 seconds in the 200 metres, which qualified him for the World Junior Championships. The event had to be postponed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19) though.
This setback is not distracting Potgieter from his goal, since he and his coach are still hard at work to improve his times by a further 0.17 seconds to enable him to qualify for the Olympics in Tokyo.
Under the auspices of South African Athletics Statisticians (SAAS) and the rules of World Athletics and Athletics South Africa (ASA), Potgieter is on the top 10 list for both the 100m and 200m as one of the fastest senior (16 years or older) athletes in South Africa.
As Potgieter says, “It doesn’t matter where you come from, with hard work and determination, you can achieve anything you set your mind to.”
The community is proud of this young farm boy from the Dlomodlomo area in Vryheid.

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