“I was trying to complete it in five minutes,” said athlete Toni Rafferty, who beat her own best 1500 metre time by 10 seconds, earning the silver medal with 4:48:41.
“I was trying to complete it in five minutes,” said athlete Toni Rafferty, who beat her own best 1500 metre time by 10 seconds, earning the silver medal with 4:48:41.
Rafferty represented the Eastern Cape in the National Schools Athletics Championships in Paarl last month.
Despite her extraordinary athletic abilities, and her stellar academic performance, she is humble and timid, as any other young girl might be under the glow of praise.
Alongside support received from athletic teachers, Amone Bester and Vernon Jones, however, Rafferty is self-motivated and ambitious.
She gets up to swim every morning before school to maintain her fitness. “My dad inspires me,” she said.
Apart from finishing in second place in her first race at national level, Rafferty also recently earned several gold medals in swimming.
She took first place in freestyle, butterfly and the individual medley at the Grahamstown Inter-district Gala.
The swimmer, runner, hockey player and star academic, might be described as an all-round "golden girl", but the Victoria Girls Primary Head Girl might disagree.
She said she dislikes her homework and house chores as much as any other girl her age.
“Homework is always a problem,” said Rafferty.
“I enjoy all the fun subjects you don’t have to do much work in,” she said, laughing. “Natural Science and Social Science are my favourites.”
Undecided about which high school she will attend, but confident about her athletic career, Rafferty plans to be coached by a professional athletics trainer at high school.
“I would like to go to the Olympics,” she said.
