Following unprecedented success on both the national and international stage, 2024 will be remembered as one of the most successful sporting years in Curro’s 25-year history.

Competing at the North West University Top 30 Athletics Meeting in Potchefstroom last week, Curro Hazeldean’s Inam Dlunge, Zattu Hlongwane, Adam Motloung and Matodzi Ndou ran 39.92 seconds in the Boys u.18 4x100m relay. This is the fastest time ever run by a boys youth relay team anywhere in the world.

Notably, Curro’s Bayanda Walaza is South Africa’s first Olympic schoolboy medallist and Matodzi Ndou set a new SA u.18 110m hurdles record last month.

“What makes the relay team’s world record so much more remarkable is that this type of record is normally held by national teams, and now, a school team from Curro has done it,” said Curro Hazeldean Executive Head Pierre le Roux.

Led by coach Thabo Matebedi, who also guided Bayanda Walaza to his Olympic relay success and the sprint double at the World Athletics Junior Championships, the quartet is part of a larger group of talented Curro Hazeldean sprinters which also includes 400m hurdles star Lesibe Dikgale.

“We ran a South African record at the ASA Grand Prix events at the University of Johannesburg earlier this year. We then set our goal to run a world record and to give the boys the gift of leaving school with amazing memories. It helps to have guys like Bayanda and Matodzi at Curro because with their sprinting talent, they motivate others to excel. They show other young athletes that it is possible,” Matebedi explained the feeling of the athletes.

Living together in the school’s boarding facility and training together day after day, even during school holidays, is an important part of the relay team’s record-breaking achievement. Curro CEO Cobus Loubser said nurturing exceptional talent with top coaches like Matebedi is part of the broader vision to establish Curro Hazeldean as the best athletics school in the country.

“We planned our sporting strategy and ambitions a year ago and committed to creating Olympians. Curro’s athletic success since then has been astonishing, with the Hazeldean team now becoming the world’s fastest u.18 relay teams ever. We are exceptionally proud of these achievements. Curro continues to invest and build structures to realise the incredible potential of young talent in this beautiful country of ours,” said Loubser.

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