Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 131, June 2020 June 2020 | Page 37

RACE WALKING Training at UJ in my Grandmother’s yard, watching both my parents succumbing to a lifestyle of unemployment, which leads to depression, drug abuse and sickness. As kids, we had to witness all of this, experience it, but I salute my older brother, Joswin, for looking after us younger brothers,” he says. Things began to change in 2005, when Reggie became friends with another young boy living in a children’s home. “I visited him and liked it there, so I asked if I could stay there, too. I was only 13, but I knew I wanted change, and somehow felt that there had to be more to life. The children’s home referred my case to the social welfare department, and not long after that, somebody came to look at our home situation. They said kids couldn’t live in such circumstances, and I told him about the children’s home nearby, so that’s how my younger brother, Roman, and I ended up in the home. We had only been there for a week or two when my dad passed away. Joswin had already moved out due to the verbally abusive conditions, so sadly, my dad died alone.” Reggie stayed in the children’s home till 2012, then moved to Johannesburg to begin his studies at the University of Johannesburg, after earning a scholarship thanks to his race walking achievements. He had actually begun participating in athletics when he was only about seven or eight years old, thanks to members of the Schauderville community. “We had guys in the community who were runners or involved in athletics, like Uncle Godfrey and Mr Leo, some of whom even served on the Board of Eastern Province Athletics (EPA), so we kids often went to races with them. We also used to run barefoot around the streets of PE, and in primary school I ran the 1500m, but I was only average middle-distance running,” he says. Walking Talent It was when he began attending DF Malherbe High School that Reggie discovered he had a talent for race walking. “One day I was teasing the walkers, when Aunty Doreen and the school athletics coach, Mr Martin Smith, challenged me to try it. I actually liked it, but it was only when I became provincial under-15 champion in grade nine that I started taking it seriously. I went to the National Schools Champs that year and finished 10th, then in 2008 won the bronze medal in the under-18 10,000m at SA Youth Camps. I was captain of the EP under-18 and under-20 teams, but I always seemed to finish fourth in most champs races. Living in a children’s home was not easy, and I went through a lot of emotional stuff, including an identity crisis, which all affected my performance.” After matriculating in 2009, Reggie took a gap year in 2010, then began studying sport management at Varity College in PE in 2011. Later that year, at the SA Race Walking Champs in Cape Town, he met top SA walker Michelle Hopkins and asked her for training advice. She worked at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) at the time, and along with coach Carl Meyer, helped Reggie get a sport bursary to go study at UJ. Signed up for a diploma course in transportation management, Reggie says he struggled to adapt to the new sporting environment. “At UJ, I was now a small fish in a very big pond. The standard of competition was so high, on another level, and my athletics career just went backwards… There was still some success, though. In my first year, in 2012, I was fourth at the USSA Champs, and also got my Central Gauteng colours, which was a dream come true. By 2013 I was still competing, but that is Competing for Central Gauteng at the SA Champs Reggie with UJ team mates, including Michelle Hopkins when I started focusing more on my creative side, through acting and music, and even though I let my walking slide, I am still so thankful to UJ for giving me the opportunity in the first place,” says Reggie. The transition from sport to the arts had actually begun as soon as Reggie arrived in Johannesburg. “In 2012 I immediately got involved in acting, singing, writing and scriptwriting, and I tried to push all my energy into creating. It started with my first year residence play, then I auditioned at the UJ Arts Centre. UJ does not have an academic drama department, but students can still learn from some of the best in the industry through campus productions and activities. For that reason, I actually think I learnt more outside the classroom than inside while at UJ, and through adapting to the lifestyle of Joburg, so while my walking fell by the wayside, I feel like the university helped me a lot in finding myself.” Finding the Right Stage So, while Reggie completed his diploma course from 2012 to 2014 and tried to keep going with the walking, he was putting more and more focus on various other activities. “I think I had always had a gift for creativity and arts, starting in high school. Since I was 14, I had also had an on-off relationship with writing, and that really picked up at university when I started writing for Varsity Sport and the UJ newspaper. I think I tried to do too much at first, and didn’t focus on anything, but eventually it was the arts – writing, acting, music, producing – that won the day.” In 2013 he auditioned for a choir called Gospel Goes Beyond, which was signed to a record company, and in 2014 they put out an EP containing five tracks. Then in 2015, while doing a bridging year to qualify to do a B.Tech degree, Reggie struck out on his own and enjoyed immediate success. “That October, I won the UJ Can You Sing, which was like a UJ version of Idols, and that was a highlight for me in my university life. I had never really believed in competitions before, but I went out to win it.” In between the singing, he was also part of several stage productions that went to the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. In 2016 Reggie started his B.Tech, but says he simply didn’t enjoy it, and by July had decided to drop out. “By then I had gotten more involved in doing commentary for BackTrack Sports, writing and creating, and decided to focus on that as a career. Fortunately, I was then offered a short-term job with Stillwater Sports & Entertainment, so I moved to Stellenbosch in the Cape. I was hired to write and research, do commentary at events, and help 37