22/05/2025
Over the past few years at the Dreamfields Project, we have extended our work beyond football and netball to include athletics as well. It's been an exciting journey.
In 2024 Bintou Camara, a grade six learner from Totomeng Primary in Meadowlands Soweto, got her first taste of glory on the track. As part of the Gauteng under-12 relay team, she earned a gold medal at the National Athletics Championships. One year later, she went not one better, but two.
When we heard that Bintou had qualified for the provincial finals, we decided to engage former Olympic sprinter Thapelo Phora, to help her prepare – backed by the Italtile and Ceramic Foundation which supports our Meadowlands work. Thapelo has run coaching workshops with Dreamfields before and he had a number of sessions with Bintou to work on her starts and her overall technique. The results were spectacular.
After winning both the 100 and 200m sprints at the Gauteng championships, it was on to the primary school nationals for Bintou. She was unstoppable.
In the 200m Bintou stormed to the gold medal in a new national record time of 24,85 seconds. And the following day she won gold again in the 100m sprint, clocking a time of 12.5 seconds. The Germiston Stadium was abuzz with Bintou’s performance and potential and she is currently considering offers from high schools keen to take her talent to the next level.
As Dreamfields' involvement in athletics has grown we are uncovering diamonds in many places. We have ambitious plans to polish them up.
