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High School track athlete Daniel Kashama Biwesa (right) and his coach Kim Dong-hwan. (Yonhap News)

“His potential is limitless.”

This was coach Kim Dong-hwon’s appraisal of Daniel Kashama Biwesa, a 17-year-old second year student at Wongok High School and top South Korean sprinting prospect. Biwesa finished first with a time of 11.04 seconds in the semifinals of the 18-and-under boys’ 100-meter event at the Korean National Track and Field Championships on June 26 at Jeongseon Stadium in Gangwon Province. Videos of Biwesa relaxing his tempo toward the end like Usain Bolt in his prime have triggered an explosion of fan interest. While he did not compete in the finals due to injury, his flexibility, resilience, and seemingly endless reserves of strength left a powerful impression. Kim Dong-hwon, a coach at Wongok High who discovered and groomed Biwesa, predicted that with “a bit of work on basic skills,” he would “develop into an athlete representing South Korea.”

While Biwesa was born in South Korea, his parents are from Congo. The family naturalized as South Korean citizens during his third year of middle school. This ended up creating some difficulties with competing in events. Biwesa’s only systematic track and field training has come during the past 18 months at Wongok High.

“He’d been doing sports since elementary school, but prior to obtaining South Korean citizenship, he had only competed in an Ansan city event,” explained Kim. In 2018, Biwesa obtained South Korean citizenship alongside his mother. He transferred to Wongok High as a “special skills student” and has been making steady progress since then. The school has been supporting him through scholarships and other means.

Biwesa’s personal best in the 100m event is 10.95 seconds, tying him for 14th place in the event for South Korean high school boys in 2019. But insiders have predicted that he could bring his time under 10.5 seconds by his third year in high school -- which would be a new record for a South Korean high school student. Standing 1.82m tall and weighing 63kg, his physical constitution also suggests strong potential. His obvious goals are to beat Kim Kuk-young’s record time of 10.07 seconds for a South Korean male and claim the title of Asia’s top athlete.

Kim Dong-hwon cautioned, “He’s very lacking in basic skills. It takes about four to five years just to master the basics. But he’s got tremendous resilience and great strength in his inner muscles and ankles. He’s also quick in recovering from fatigue.”

“My plan is to build him up a bit at a time,” he added.

Biwesa benefits from the devoted support of his father, a Congolese national who travels back and forth between Congo and South Korea. Currently living with his mother, Biwesa is fluent in Korean but uses French at home.

“He’s a very diligent and good-natured person,” said Kim.

“If he can learn to be careful about injury and gain a bit more weight, he’ll show tremendous strength,” he predicted.

By Kim Chang-keum, senior staff writer

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