Joshua to represent SA at world champs

HILLCREST’S Joshua Steytler (below) has been selected to represent South Africa at the 2023 World Duathlon Championships in Ibiza, Spain, in the Elite U/23 Men’s category.

Steytler was introduced to duathlons by a friend when he was in Grade Eight and has never looked back.

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“I thought it would be nice to try something new; it looked fun,” he said.

This World Duathlon Championships will be held next year from April 29 to May 7. This is the second time that Steytler has been selected to represent South Africa at an international level.

“I am proud to represent South Africa and excited to see how I compete against the best duathletes in the world,” said the former Kearsney College learner.

In June this year, Steytler was selected to represent South Africa at the 2022 World Duathlon Championships held in Targu Mures, Romania, where he placed 10th overall out of a field of 36 junior men athletes from various countries around the world.

According to the sportsman, this is the first time South Africa has selected an athlete to race in this high-performance Elite U/23 men’s category which comprises a 10km run, followed by a 40km road bike race and finishing with a 5km run.

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“This is a fantastic experience, and I am very excited to have been selected for this Elite U/23 category. This will be a very fast-paced race so there will be a lot of pressure to perform well,” he said.

Now that the 2022 university year is complete, Joshua can put all his concentration and efforts into training hard to prep for this event.

When asked what he liked about the sport, the 19-year-old said, “The challenging aspect of running after a hard bike session.”

Steytler is currently at Stellenbosch University, going into his third year. He advised aspiring young duathletes to consistently work towards the goals they would like to achieve within the sport and even outside the sport.

“You can apply the discipline of training to all aspects of life, which will make you a more well-rounded individual. What is often forgotten in duathlons, as well as triathlons, is that the person who finishes first in a sport is the one who is the most well-rounded and not the one who is the best at only one of the disciplines in the sport,” he said.

To become the best, Steytler highlighted that people have to sacrifice a lot and put in hours of training, ‘but at the end of the day, the one who sacrifices the most is the one who reaps the most benefits later in life’.

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