South African pole vaulting athlete, Cheyne Rahme, on Wednesday, 13 August, won gold at the 19th Africa Senior Championships, which took place in Marrakech, Morocco from 10 to 14 August 2014, after clearing 5.41m.

This was despite the athlete only receiving his pole five hours before his first scheduled competition given that he was denied by a commercial airline to travel with his six metre long vaulting pole.

According to Hennie Heymans, Managing Director for DHL Express South Africa, in the company’s typical ‘can do’ spirit, the DHL Express South Africa and DHL Express Morocco team worked together to ensure that South African pole vaulting athlete was able to compete in the competition.

“Our South African office received a frantic call from a gentleman on the Saturday, 9 August regarding Rahme’s six metre long pole which could not be accommodated on his flight – the item he desperately needed to participate at the games in Marrakesh the evening of Wednesday, 13 August; failing which he would have had to withdraw.”

Heymans says that finding space for the six metre length pole was a challenge. “Our Johannesburg operations team called SAA airlines and managed to get space on a flight that allowed the pole to be transported on Saturday night into London Heathrow, and then into Leipzig airport in Germany, on Sunday. Together with the assistance of our DHL Quality Control Center, they were able to get a routing into Casablanca, Morocco, arriving Tuesday, following which the DHL Casablanca team quickly cleared the shipment and arranged a special vehicle to deliver the pole in Marrakesh – with just a few hours to spare!

“This type of delivery is the core of what our business stands for- we always find a way to deliver a solution. We are extremely happy that we were able to play a small part in Rahme’s amazing achievement,” concludes Heymans.