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Caption: The voluntary team of organisers for the African Cup series, Zimbabwe

African Cup Series Troutbeck Zimbabwe

In trying times of the economic position in Zimbabwe, Triathlon Zimbabwe, a committed voluntary team of triathlon lovers showed great hospitality and hosted a world class event.  With points up for grabs many athletes from around the world showed up for the 4th event in the African Cup series.  The event was held up at 2000m altitude in a 5 star resort at Troutbeck, Nyanga.

Nuria Miro from Spain coming from a swimming history set  a blistering pace in the swim, but South African athletes Claire Kinsley and Corrine Berg managed to catch back 2 min within the first lap of what people might say a challenging bike course. There was a flat section for about 500m and the rest of the course was either a climb or a decent. Local girl Ashley Finnaughty rode strong too managing to hang a fair distance behind. Finnaughty is still a junior and at only 19 years of age, is a promising young Zimbabwian star. With some small gaps and near breaks the 2 South African girls, Kinsley and Berg, could not be separated and come into transition together. Behind them was top Ironman athlete Hiedi Grim from the USA who had  been slowly closing the gap. Corrine Berg was out of transition fast, but Heidi Grim was the one that was chasing hard for the victory. Final results were 1st Heidi Grim(USA), 2nd Corrine Berg(RSA), and 3rd Claire Kinsley(RSA).

The Men’s event was again a strong field of athletes from 5 different countries. Ex Olympian Xavier Llobert from Spain set the pace on the swim exiting with a 15sec gap from a group consisting of 2 Austrians, Dominik Berger and Christian Friderik, 2 South Africans Kent Horner and Erhaardt Wolfhaardt and local Zimbabwe hero Chris Felgate. The steep climbs and high intensity left Erhardt Wolfaardt on his own and trailing behind the leaders. Berger pushed the pace on the bike in hope of catching Lobert. However,  Llobert managed to increase his lead to just under a minute, and the chasing  group of 4 came into transition together. If the altitude of 2000m and an extremely hilly bike course was not hard enough ,the run course consisted of 4 laps with 4 long hills in each lap. The fastest  run split only 39:35. On the first lap, Horner ran hard to split the group up trying to chase leader  Xavier Llobert.  Llobert lost 15 sec in the first lap but then seemed to find his legs again, and held off the chasing group. Final results were 1st Xavier LLobert, (ESP) 2nd Kent Horner (RSA) 3rd Chris Felgate(ZIM).

more info: Triathlon Zimbabwe

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