Profile

Names: Virgile Ian Bonhomme
Date of Birth: 03 July 1976
Highest honour/achievements: Represented South African for Hockey, Invitation SA Men’s Indoor side, SA Schools colours' for Hockey, 100m and 200m
Favourite food: Scrambled eggs
Ambitions: To look the same at 50; make the cover of Men's Health magazine and be remembered for my remarkable and amazing natural fitness abilities
Sporting Heroes: Bruce Fordice for distance running and Lance Armstrong for cycling and Marion Jones for Running
Hobbies: Being outdoors and watching DVDs
 

Biography

Virgile Bonhomme is one of those amazing natural athletes who can accomplish anything he sets his mind to.
And he's become one of the driving forces in the South African men's hockey team, where he has seen that the team has a long way to go if it wants to be ranked among the top five in the world.

"We played a six-match Test series against Germany in Potchefstroom and after watching them warm up for an hour before the game and warm down for two hrs post match made me realize that we would never be top five in the world unless we raised our standardards," he says. "It was an eye opening experience and life changing."

At schools level he was an outstanding sprinter, which has stood him in good stead on the hockey field. And his natural fitness helped him through when he tackled the 42km Hillcrest marathon early this year, qualifying for the Comrades Marathon with 25 minutes to spare, despite having only been for three runs since January, and his longest run being only an hour.

While his approach to hockey is a lot more serious now, he wasn't always that way inclined when he was younger, when he was known to be happy-go-lucky.

"I was 19 years old and playing for the Provincial Men’s Team and we were in Bloemfontein for a tournament. After a fines meeting I passed out in the park. When I woke up my team had left and forgotten about me so I slept next to a tree in the hope they would return…and they did," he says.

These days, though, he's far more focused on being a professional athlete that people will look up to for what he does on the field. So meeting role models like Marion Jones and Venus Williams has spurred him on in his endeavours.

And the main one is helping South Africa be one of the best hockey sides in the world.