Hillcrest student smashes 1,500m record

Coral Hays of Hillcrest School during inter-schools competition at Kasarani.

Coral Hays, a student at Hillcrest Secondary School, broke the International Schools’ record for the Open 1,500m by an astounding 23 seconds at Friday’s inter-schools competition at Kasarani Stadium.

Coral, who is still two years young for the Open category, represented Kenya at the Pentathlon World Cup in Cairo earlier this year and hopes to fly the Kenyan flag for the modern Pentathlon at the Rio 2016 Olympics, an event for which Hillcrest is becoming the regional training centre.

In addition to Coral’s outstanding performance, Hillcrest won eight other gold medals, broke three records and won the girls events at both U15 and U19 level, only missing out on first place overall to St Andrew’s Turi by one point.

Coral was named Victrix Ludorum for the Open category with Kibibi Maseland receiving the same honour for the U15 girls and Ledama Masidza, son of Hillcrest Chair of Governors Bob Kikuyu, achieved the title of Victor Ludorum for the U15 Boys.

Headteacher, Leon Bareham said: “Coral is a star on the track and in the classroom. We are all immensely proud of her and her team mates for such a fantastic performance, typical of the heart and soul approach which Hillcrest espouses”.