VPHS
The Sports Dinner: Guest Speaker
Mr Sergio Mullins:
Athlete
Events: 100m and 200m
Sergio Mullins started athletics in 1996 and won his
first provincial 100m title in 2001. He has competed
at 14 consecutive SA Senior Champs and has held
the 100m senior title in 4 different provinces (WP,
KZN, BOLAND and EP).
He is the current EP 100m senior champion. He
competed in European track competitions as well as
African Championships. In the Masters age category, age 30-34, he ranked 1st in both 100m & 200m.
He represented South African at the Southern Region Championships (2007); Africa Senior Championships (2008) and at the Beijing Olympic Games
in 2008 (relay squad).
What kept me going back to training is that I had a
goal I wanted to achieve and I was determined to
get it. I can remember my first week of training in
my white shorts and t-shirt. I went to my coach and
told him that the sessions we were doing were hard;
I can’t anymore. He told me something that stuck
wit h me throughout my athletics career. He said
to me, “My boy, when you came to join the group,
where in the conversation did I mention it was ever
going to be easy?”
His speech….
I am Sergio Mullins, a product of the Cape Flats in
Cape Town. I was asked to take up some of your
valuable time by talking about my life as former national athlete. Most of my success came in my late
20’s as I was not a standout junior athlete by any
means.
In life there is always going to be pain and hardship.
That pain and hardship should be used as fuel to
take you from where you are, to where you believe
you should be.
In my first year of high school I was unable to make
the high school team. I only achieved that in my 2nd
year – I was but a mediocre athlete throughout my
school career. One of my disappointments was that
I never achieved provincial colours at school
As life is, we will not all achieve our goals, as there
is only 1 gold medal, but what you can do is put
steps in place to be in contention for that medal.
Those principles learnt on your path should be carried over into your daily life. Being a champion is
not just about doing one thing correctly, it is about
creating a gold medal lifestyle for yourself. Always
find ways to improve yourself.
Take that to mind, a kid who at one stage was not
good enough to make his high school team , would
one day achieve the dream of representing his country and don the green and gold.
I won my first sprint title without ever training on a
track or even on grass. We never had those facilities;
our training was done in a pathway at a local park.
That facility was 5km away from where I lived. I
had to walk to get to training as there was no money
for a taxi. If I look back now, even to me it seems
crazy. I’ve been robbed at gun point and got chased
by thugs.
There are certain things I wished I had achieved but
realised later on in life why I didn’t achieve them.
Those wishes I should’ve turned into goals. I had
the mentality of “one day and someday,” one day
I would like to have this, some day it will happen.
To achieve we must have timelines and deadlines.
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