Nic's our new Crossfit hero

GARDEN ROUTE SPORT NEWS - After only a year of Crossfit, Plettonian teen Nic Blignaut has done himself and his peers immensely proud on the international Crossfit stage, earning a fourth place at the prestigious Wodapalooza Miami Crossfit Festival last weekend.

Nic (15) grew up in Limpopo before moving down to Plett with his mom and sister a few years ago, where he is home-schooled. Growing up on farms where he would have been working quite a bit, is something that greatly benefited him according to his coach Dwayne Hurn, who feels "it may be where he gets such a high work ethic from".

Even though Nic lives in Plett, he drives through with his mom on a daily basis to train with Hurn at Crossfit Knysna – though he still puts in extra work in Plett.

Nic's Crossfit journey started out a year ago when he was looking for a kickboxing gym, stumbled upon Crossfit instead, and instantly fell in love with it. "I just knew it was for me. From day one, I was absolutely hooked," the teen said. He put in a lot of hard work and soon found himself among the country's best. Nic's performances spoke for themselves, and true as blue, only a year after starting Crossfit he found himself in Miami as the only South African teenager taking part in Wodapalooza from 21 to 23 February.

On 16 February, Nic flew overseas with Hurn to begin acclimatising and shake off any travel lag. They were able to train at the Crossfit Downtown Miami gym, where many other international athletes were also doing their prep. After a few days of hard work and preparation, competition commenced on 21 February, and Nic excelled from the get-go. Taking part in the Youth 13-15 category, he soon found himself well inside the top 10 at sixth place heading into the final event of the competition. He put on an impressive showing in the final event and climbed into fourth spot, finishing only four points behind third place.

For both Nic and his trainer, the experience gained and lessons learnt were invaluable. "This was a huge learning curve that only the experience could have given me," Nic said.

"I've taken lessons out of each event and can't wait to put it all into practice for his prep over the next year," Hurn said, adding that he believes "the future is bright" for Nic but that they won't be pushing him too far too soon. "Nic will be taking a little bit of a rebuilding phase for now as we prep him for his future," the coach said.

Nic Blignaut alongside coached Dwayne Hurn hard at work at Crossfit Knysna.