Inspiration can be found everywhere and in any form. Till now, I've written about people who have lived some to several decades on this earth and motivate us with their determination and drive. But today, my protagonist is my daughter's age. She actually was even in my daughter's class in kindergarten. I didn't know when she grew up to be the formidable athlete that she's becoming. Just like time fooled me and I see my daughters all grown up now.
Meet 18 year old Kayla Houari, today a shot-put athlete and Belgium's hope in the track and field world. It all began when Kayla was 9 years old. She took part in a race and enjoyed the sensations that she experienced so much that she wanted to get into Athletics immediately. The local athletics team at Forest, an area of Brussels, was organising an Open Athletic competition. She ran in the 1000m and the 60m. Kayla loved being with the other kids who were participating and that really got her hooked. She used to swim and do gymnastics but she preferred this group feeling she got on the field. So she asked her parents to enrol her into a Club.
In Belgium, Athletes always start out by participating in all disciplines. One cannot choose any one. In her Club she had a fantastic coach called Gilbert who used to scout for kids with high all round potential. He made a small group of four girls who he thought would get far. They were always on the podium and generally very strong. They were the kind who pushed themselves and so he took extra care of this budding group of athletes. They were one group and had a great trainer. They became a relay team going to different competitions. National competitions and Challenges like the famous Eric de Meu, which is an iconic and natural progression for any young athlete. The challenge has 5 disciplines, a sort of Pentathlon in which there is Javeline, shot-put, 60m race, High jump and 1000m race. It works with a point system. For each event, the participant collects points and the person who has the maximum points wins the challenge. So Kayla found herself with her friends amongst the Best in Belgium and she was nearly always on the podium in her age category.
At 12-13 yrs of age, the four girls were still participating together. They did swimming, hurdles, the Heptathlon and sprints. When you do a Heptathlon you need to train for 7 different disciplines. Usually when you reach for practice you practice one discipline per day. So, that would mean 7 days for the 7 sports. Training of this kind is very difficult with a normal school schedule and other activities. Kayla continued training for nearly a year and then finally stopped, hoping to master a couple of disciplines by spending more time fine tuning and more hours dedicated to them.
Around this time Kayla and her family shifted out of Brussels to Tubize which lies in the French speaking Wallonia in Belgium. She joined the Athletic Club of Nivelles where she began with the Heptathlon and then decided to specialise in shot-put and hurdles.
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| relay race |
Both these disciplines need explosive strength and technical finesse. She was now doing 4 training sessions a week with both sports being targeted, which included 2 of each sport. In that period, Kayla found herself great at hurdles and ok for the shot-put. She went on for a year, training each sport and participating in several competitions all along. The training involved strength exercises and physical preparation (like jumps and speed). Eventually, she chose shot put as her unique sport as she found herself struggling on the weighing scale to be able to be the best on the hurdles. Even though she was not overweight, hurdles needs one to be extremely light and nimble. Once she had zeroed-in on shot put , she found a coach who was available to take her through two training sessions per week. She did that for around two years. She made quick progress as she complemented these sessions with running and going to the gym for strength training. She had a ranking at 4th place in Belgium at that stage.
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| White Star - Woluwe - 14yrs |
Around January 2025 Kayla wanted to go to the USA on scholarship and was hoping to add her points in sports to her already good marks to make it. However, with training happening only twice a week, it was quite impossible to get much better. Fate had it that she met her now coach Medhy with whom now she trains at Mons, another city of Belgium. He allowed her to train with her previous coach and come to train with him for the additional days. The young adult juggled between the two coaches for two months from January to March. She saw herself progressing and her diet became cleaner all the while working on her strength and muscle gain and mind you all this along with the final year of her High School. Working with two coaches obviously was not something that could last long and Kayla chose to train 5 days a week with Medhy, as soon as he got available. Her holidays are only Tuesdays and Sundays. She has no other evening free. In fact, even this interview was taken on a Tuesday, on a day when her training wouldn't be disturbed. You would think that Kayla surely does studies that are easy to be able to have such a busy athletic schedule, but no! She is in the first year of Law studies and takes each aspect of her life seriously. She participates in competitions and different kinds of championships on all weekends.
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Her list of participations that we managed to put down are
Hurdles - 2 Belgian Championships, 1 indoor and 1 outdoor. She was 12th/32th in 2023
Shotput - 7 Belgian Championships
She is usually 5th/16th on the day. This usually always has 2 Championships, 1 indoor and 1 outdoor.
Aug- Sept 2025 she was 4th/16th in the all category Belgian Championships (above 18 yrs old).
In an International meet in Nivelles in 2024. In this competition Kayla saw and experienced some famous champions like Elena Defrère from Germany and Nafissatou Thiam, the big Belgian Olympic champion.
When I ask 18-year-old Kayla what her biggest learnings are from her many years of sports discipline, this young lady says she knows she needs to train, sleep and eat with her sport and training in mind. Sports have laid out the rhythm of her life. She needs to study in advance, never be late for most things and especially not procrastinate.
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| with coach Medhy |
She suffered when she was younger choosing between her two favourite sports. Wanting to do well in Hurdles, she found herself starting to be Anorexic. Luckily, she caught herself in time and got out of that vicious and unhealthy mindset and lifestyle.
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| Schaerbeek - Lancer's meet- 16yrs |
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| Schaerbeek- French speaking Heptathlon championship |
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| French speaking shot-put Championship - Louvain la Neuve |
Sometimes she admits that doing so many sports and wanting to be at the highest level of her sports potential constantly means she sometimes feels she lost out on her adolescence. Even today, she doesn't do night outs and doesn't chill out like many of her peers. Sacrificing concerts like Sexion Assault, a once in a lifetime opportunity for a Belgian teen, was a choice that she had to make because of a competition the next day. She has learned that what she thinks of as a sacrifice is also not really one. The joy she receives by dedicated effort and showing up to give her best is not quantifiable or even tangible. Surely some days, she has a medal to show for her work but even better is that she knows that each day she gives herself up to her passion, she is closer to knowing herself, trusting herself, congratulating herself and loving herself. A true win-win either way!
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| 1st competition of her life- Forest- 9yrs |
#trackandfield #shotput #athlete #training #LancerDuPoids #BelgianAthletics #Belgium #Entrainement
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