Leon van Blerk (left) is seen here with Francis Nel and the club trophies and certificates awarded to her by Kimberley Road Runners Club last Saturday. Picture: Supplied
KIMBERLITE Frances Nel, the holder of seven Comrades marathon race entries, made a clean sweep of the medals table at Kimberley Road Runners club which honoured her with multiple awards for her participation in the sport last Saturday.
Nel (31) received the awards at the club’s annual prize-giving ceremony.
“The club honoured me with the titles ‘Female Road Runner of the Year’, as well as ‘Athlete of the the Yea’, ‘SportsWoman of the Year’, including the Comrades marathon’s ‘Mark van Niekerk Excellence’ prize as well as several run of the mill certificates for administrative stuff such as, among others, a ‘general attendance recognition’ certificate.
Nel started out in road running while still at primary school. There she made the SA Schools championships where she took part in the 100-metre dash as well as the 200-metre sprint event.
From Grade one up to her matric year Nel said she was a regular in the school’s cross country events and made the annual trips to the SA Schools champs.
Nel, who holds up a regular ‘9 to 5 gig’ in the province, expressed the wish to lay her hands on a silver medal at the Comrades, hopefully within the next two to three years.
The encouraging news is that she is almost assured that she will reach her Comrades marathon target after teaming up with local sports performance guru Leon van Blerk of Performance Sport Institute (PSI).
Van Blerk said they have structured a special training regime for Nel that includes strength and stamina training. In general PSI services include a host of specialisation areas such as psychology, conditioning, dietary systems and rehabilitation programmes.
“Our programme has packages for weekend workouts, as well. Every sports type and athlete who is in the know, needs these types of services, Van Blerk said.
In Francis’ case, Van Blerk said the programme has already impacted on her personal best times in road running. “Her time for the last ultra marathon has improved by over an hour. After seven years of slogging it out on the roads she now has reached new personal best times in her career from the 10km, 15km, 21km, and 42 km distances,” said van Blerk.
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