ALL AFRICAN TRIATHLON CHAMPS 2007
ALL AFRICAN TRIATHLON CHAMPS 2007
 

ALL AFRICAN TRIATHLON CHAMPS 31/03/2007

All African Triathlon Champs 2007 was held at the beautiful Le Coco beach on the East Coast of Mauritius. Alain St Louis, president of triathlon Mauritius, and his team put up a well organized event enjoyed by all athletes and spectators.

A slight wind on race day brought on a choppy swim, a good advantage for the stronger swimmers. The U13 and U15 juniors got off to an early start and it was Zimbabwe’s young stars who took home most of the medals. The South African’s seemed to only feature as the older athletes got going.

In the U19 boys it was an SA 1,2,3 as Loy de Jager, Theo Blignaut and Wikus Weber battled it out for first place. It was de Jager from Natal who eventually took top honors followed closely by Blignaut from Mafakeng and Weber in third place.

In the U19 girls Vicky van der Merwe finished in first place comfortably ahead of the young Zimbabwian Ashley Minaughty.

At midday with a soaring humidity and 30 degree heat the elite girls got off to a fast start. Kate Roberts (RSA) and Mari Rabie battled it out on the bike whilst Corrine Berg and Claire Kinsley rode hard to catch them. The four South African’s finished the bike together – it was going to be the run that determined who would take home the African Champ title. Roberts proved too strong and finished first ahead of Corinne Berg in second and Mari Rabie in third. All 4 girls collecting valuable points for Olympic ranking.

The final race of the day was the elite men. Towards the end of the swim a slight split developed in the group with Hendrick de Villiers (RSA), David Hauss (FRA) and Kent Horner (RSA) exiting the water together. A smalll fault in transition saw Horner miss the front pack. De Villiers and Hauss held a minute gap between the second group of 5 athletes the entire bike. Horner and Wolfaadt biked hard to try and catch the first two athletes but the group never seemed to work well together and De Villiers and Hauss finished the bike with a comfortable gap. It was De Villiers who managed to take home the African title, and after a bad crash a couple weeks previously the South African seemed delighted with his surprise win.

The race was a success for most, and the Elites will now see a jump in their World Ranking as well as their Olympic ranking, enabling them to start their season with a good advantage ahead of the rest of the World. The fight for Olympic qualification has begun…

Top 5 Elite Results

Pos Name NF Swim T-1 BIKE T-2 RUN Final
1 Hendrik  de VILLIERS RSA 0:19:32 0:00:14 0:51:34 0:00:13 00:35:21 01:46:54
2 David  HAUSS FRA 0:19:31 0:00:14 0:51:34 0:00:14 00:35:26 01:46:59
3 Erhard  WOLFAADT RSA 0:20:00 0:00:16 0:52:50 0:00:06 00:35:27 01:48:39
4 David  BARDI FRA 0:20:32 0:00:15 0:52:05 0:00:19 00:37:07 01:50:18
5 Kent  HORNER RSA 0:19:34 0:00:16 0:53:00 0:00:20 00:37:37 01:50:47
1 Kate  ROBERTS RSA 0:21:12 0:00:16 01:02:20 0:00:25 00:40:37 02:04:50
2 Marie  RABIE RSA 0:21:28 0:00:17 01:02:03 0:00:17 00:42:34 02:06:39
3 Corinne  BERG RSA 0:23:21 0:00:17 01:00:09 0:00:18 00:41:27 02:05:32
4 Claire  KINSLEY RSA 0:24:03 0:00:18 00:59:28 0:00:19 00:45:15 02:09:23
5 Fabienne  ST LOUIS MRI 0:25:58 0:00:16 01:02:54 0:00:30 00:49:46 02:19:24

Photo Gallery

Full results Below
 
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