DURBAN - A KWAZULU-NATAL youngster is on track to compete in the 2026 Commonwealth Games following a stunning display of raw talent in the National Athletics Championships last month.
Mholi Phili, a Grade 6 pupil from Clifton school in Durban, stunned his school, parents and other young athletes with his performances in the sprint races at the provincial championships in February, and went on to replicate his performance a month later at the national level.
He has since garnered attention from athletic bigwigs who are now eyeing him to compete in the 2026 Commonwealth Games. His school, which had put him in the competition to compete in the Under-12 category, posted a message on its Facebook page congratulating him after his accomplishments at the national championships last month.
“Well done to Mholi Phili (Grade 6) who participated in the National Athletics Championships in Potchefstroom. He came 5th in the final of the 150m for Boys Under-12 and won a silver medal in the Boys Under-12 in the 100m event,” it said.
In February, with just a few weeks of training, Mholi competed in the provincial championships where he won gold medals in the 100m and 150m sprints.
He told The Mercury yesterday that he was very proud of his achievements.
“What I want is to be better than I am,” he said.
He added that he was excited about the medals he had received over these past few months.
“I want to be one of the fastest people who ever lived; it’s a huge goal, but I think I can get there,” he said.
His mother Palesa, who is the CEO of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said she was stunned by her son’s achievements.
“I have a champion. He only started training in mid-February and won gold medals in the 150m and 100m – what he displayed there was raw talent. He has always been competitive in sport, and with this performance I realised that, my god, this boy is fast,” she said.
She said Mholi had always been competitive in the different sporting codes he participated in, and that was why he ended up on the first teams.
Speaking on his performance in the national championships, she said: “Some of the boys that he competed against were much taller than him, and they had been training for more than a year, whereas he had been training for just a few weeks prior.”
She said that Mholi had shown that he could take part in the Commonwealth Games in 2026.
She said he had been offered a chance to join the Elite Athlete Development Programme under the Department of Sport. The programme will prepare athletes for the Commonwealth Games in 2026 and Olympics.
His athletics coach, Lux Gordhan of Aspire Sporting Academy, said Mholi had tremendous potential and a unique attitude in that he was fearless, and the bigger the competition, the bigger his performance.
Aleck Skhosana, of the KwaZulu-Natal Academy of Sport, said the first time he saw the video of Mholi running, he thought of renowned Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.
“I thought that this is an uncut diamond. With the right training he will go far; he has the body, the height and the attitude.”
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