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SA Elite Duathlon Champion!

I managed to grab my first Elite Duathlon title over the past weekend. I am currently taking some time off training, so this race was all about having fun and racing in my home town.

The LOC put the elite athletes together with the age-groupers, which made for a exiting race………., a good battle for the top placings, and I received some good competition from the pure Duathlete, Brand du Plessis. In the end I did enough to win the elite title.

Now it is preparation time for 2009…!

Just a quick Thank You to everybody who was involved in making this event a success. I think it was really well organized with a good turnout of athletes. Sure, it  is a bit cold, dry, flat and high here in Bloemfontein, but it provides a bit of a challenge to the race. I am sure all the athletes enjoyed this event as much as I did.

SA Duathlon Champs.

Its that time of the year again. Duathlon and winter always goes together.

The race will come to my hometown this year…….Bloemfontein.

Scheduled for next weekend, the racing may be cold, flat and dry, but it sure will be exiting.

all the info on this race is available on www.triathlonsa.co.za.

Summary………..

Taking a step back, and taking two steps forward. I lost out on Olympic Qualification, so Beijing will not see me this year. I tried my best, and that to me, is good enough. Whilst not having the best season on paper, my potential and improvements has definitely come across in training and certain elements of racing.

Sometimes success comes easy, sometimes not. Time is a factor, it can happen overnight……….it can take a bit longer. How badly you want it will determine how hard you will fight for it.

Elite World Champs report.

Sunday is Race Day, as always.

The day started of with the u/23 girls and boys, Elite woman and then us, the Elite men.

Definitely worth a mention here is Mari Rabie, who raced phenomenally to finish in 3rd position in the u/23 girls race. She is the first SA athlete to medal at the World Championships. Awesome performance. Well done Marie.

These World Champs was certainly the most challenging to date, as the water was a chilly 11deg. and and with an air temperature of around 12-16deg. it was very cold indeed………..Trust me.

My race was packed with the best athletes in the World. The “World Championship” crown was less than 2hours away as 80+ athletes lined up for the start.

The swim is the deciding factor for me, and I knew I had no choice but to make the front pack………….Simple as that. It was a cold and challenging ocean swim. I did make the front pack!

I was there, in the front group on the bike at the World Champs, and was riding pretty well. The group staye together through the entire bike, and it was once again down to the run.

I only managed a 34minute run, just over 2min behind winner Xavier Gomez. But I proved that I can swim in the front, cycle with the best on a hard course, and still run a descent time.

I improved to 35th place compared to last year.

Now I will work on a couple of things, put in some good training and then…………………..watch this space!!

Junior World Champs.

It was a pretty cold, wet and early 7am start for the girls this morning, with the junior boys off at 9am.

I watched the race with a coffee from our Hotel lounge, and it surely was exiting to watch these juniors.

In the girls race, Ashleigh Finaughty from Zimbabwe showed some African toughness with a superb 4th place finish. I wonder what Mugabe would say about that………?

First SA girl across the line was Vicky vd Merwe, who ended in a pretty good 16th spot. Baie Mooi!

The 16year old Namibian magic, Abrahm Louw, finished 20th overall in the boys race, a great result for his first World Champs.

Well done Abrahm!

Wikus Weber was the first South African home, in a very respectable 21st place. A great improvement from his side.

Well done to all.