FOLLOWING the end of the South African track and field season, Dipaleseng Athletics Club will host the first cross-country meet at Balfour High School tomorrow.

Organiser Zithulele Sinqe said they were inviting youngsters in Balfour and surrounding areas to the competition.

"We had a great track and field season and are geared up for an even bigger cross-country one, which is the main focus of our development programme," he said. "We will use the competition to assess the level of fitness of the 70 young boys and girls who attended the training camp we hosted two weeks ago.

"The week-long training camp was conducted by athletics greats like Josiah Thugwane, Hendrick Mokganyetsi and Hezekiel Sepeng.

"We hope to have reached out to more than 1000 children from 17 schools by the end of September. Our sponsors Great Basin Gold have been very supportive in this project.

"Successful countries like Kenya and Ethiopia use cross country to develop their athletes when are still at primary schools.

"We will be also using it to identify talent. We have talent in abundance in Mpumalanga but we want to see them making the community of Dipalesang proud. We will bus all the participating children to the school," said Sinqe.