Fresh, hungry and rising to the top with hard work and a steely determination is Dovovan du Randt. He is one of our youth rugby players who has his head and heart in the right place. He describes himself as “a hardworking, outgoing and highly competitive person”. This was so clear during his performances at “school boy” rugby over the past few years. He is not shy to sprint, dive, jump and attack to score and bring victory for his team.
He is proudly a Glenwood High School learner, currently busy with his matric finals. Glenwood has recently honoured him at their Annual Sports’ Awards Banquet with the Sportsman of the Year award. What an honour and achievement for him as an individual but also for the team and the sport in general. Our schools play such a wonderful role in the early development of our young talent.
Donovan has competed at the highest level for his country at he Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa this year, being part of the team that won a gold medal for sevens rugby.
We wish him all the best with the matric exams and will keep a keen eye on him next year as he goes from strength to strength.
| Athlete: Bio / Stats | |
| Name & Surname | Donovan du Randt |
| Nick Name | Donny |
| Date of birth | 14/01/1997 |
| Place of birth | Pongola |
| Current City | Durban |
| Height | 1.72 |
| Weight | 72 |
| Shoe Size | 7 |
| Club | None |
| Coach’s Name | Rudi Dames and Mike Volwes |
| Out of Country events/ meets | Junior Commonwealth Games |
| Favorite City | Auckland |
| Favorite Song/ type of music | Again – Fetty Wap |
| Favorite Movie | Get hard |
| School & Grade | Glenwood High School – Grade 12 |
| Sponsors | None |
| Twitter and Instagram names, facebook name | Instagram – donovan_durandt
Facebook- Donovan du Randt |
| Community projects involved in | Salvation Army |
| Parents Names, siblings | Ansie du Randt |
| Very briefly describe yourself as a person. | I see myself as a hardworking, outgoing and highly competitive person . |
INTERVIEW:
Q: You are passionate and doing so well in your Rugby tell me a little bit about how you started in Rugby and your journey in the Rugby arena up to now?
Since I was a little boy of 4 years old my dad used to take us to all his rugby games and since then I developed the love for rugby.
Q: What is the highest accolade that you have achieved in Rugby and what is your greatest personal accomplishment?
The highest was representing South Africa at the junior commonwealth games in Somoa. The highest personal achievement was returning with a gold medal.
Q: You have just represented Team SA for Rugby in Samoa at the Youth Commonwealth Games. The team did brilliant, bringing back the Gold Medal, wow and congrats!! What are your observations about this games / lessons learned?
You can never expect to go to an international tournament that any game would be easy but through hard work and dedication only one team could go home with a gold medal. Lesson learned was that hard work pays off.
Q: Do you have any specific regimens or rituals in rugby, maybe a particular diet / training method that can be partially attributed to your success?
No specific regiments or rituals but sticking to the normal conditioning program and training hard every day.
Q: How do you manage to fit in both sports and academics / work into your schedule?
You have to know where your priorities are as you have to focus on both at the same time.
Q: Beside your rugby what do you have a passion for?
I have a passion to help people that are homeless and those struggling to survive.
Q: Tell me one thing about yourself that the world does not know?
There is a softer side to me and I miss my dad terribly.
Q: Which athlete/ athletes inspire you?
Dan Carter
Q: What is your personal favourite motivational quote?
Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.
Q: What is your favourite Bible / Scripture quote?
Believe and you will be saved.
Q: What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Ice in the head fire in the belly
Q: What is your biggest challenge, and what do you do to manage this challenge?
The biggest challenge is to play in the green and gold and for myself to get there I will have to work very hard and to take every opportunity that comes my way.
Q: When you’ve had a tough / bad day, what lifts you up again?
My friends will always lift me up when they see I did not have a good day. Rugby training also helps me to take my head off all the negatives.
Q: I’m sure you have many things going on right now, what’s to be expected next from you?
What I think will be expected of me in the next few years will be to create a bright future for myself and hopefully play in the green and gold one day.
Thank you so much for taking this interview. We would like to wish you all the best for your journey ahead. We look forward to following you as you go from strength to strength. Blessings!
Photo Credits:
- Outsider Communication
- Contact Details:
E-mail: outsidercomm@gmail.com
- NB – All images were supplied by the athlete to Heslop Sports. If there are any images that are not credited correctly, please email info@heslopsports.co.za with the details and we will gladly do so immediately.
