For the third consecutive year, the Mopani Lowveld Triathlon Challenge, serving as a selection event for triathletes to represent Ehlanzeni at SA champs, took place near White River on Sunday. It is the only sanctioned triathlon and only event of this magnitude and technicality in Mpumalanga.

Much to the excitement of the organisers, Ehlanzeni Triathlon Association committee, made up of six volunteers, a total of 220 athletes entered the race – 133 in the triathlon and 87 in the duathlon.

They received a lot of positive feedback regarding the layout of transition, the flow of entry and exit from transition and using the White River Country Club as the new venue. “The cricket club offered a suburb venue with great visibility of the event for athletes and spectators. The increased temperatures made it a very tough day,” said one of the organisers, Tarryn Field. The standard cycle route being changed to a loop cycle made the event more manageable for the less experienced cyclists.

The day, however, did not go by without some challenges.

A misunderstanding occurred Triathlon and Duathlon SuperSprint. As a general rule of thumb, race briefing at a triathlon/duathlon is always compulsory. We as a committee try to cover all the important information, rules and route details in a condensed 15-minute briefing before each race starts. We were very excited to have such a high number of novice multisport athletes at this event. Unfortunately, instructions need be followed to the letter and due to the technicality of a triathlon. We rely on over 35 volunteers for marshals and unfortunately these wonderful people from the community who volunteer their time selflessly are not always triathletes themselves,” said Field.
An emergency protocol had to be implemented due to an accident on the standard distance route, requiring medical intervention near the turning point at Oliver’s restaurant. “This decision was to instruct cyclists to turn on the R40 (two kilometres short of the actual turning point). “This year is the first year we have needed to put our emergency action plan into place, and I am happy to say that the protocol ran smoothly and Lowmed EMS were professional and efficient,” said Field and added that none of the injuries were serious.

The greatest issue was, however, the kids and nipper route. “This was our biggest challenge of the day,” she said and added that it was caused by the accident near Oliver’s, five minutes before the start of their race the kids’ cycle route was altered, which also caused confusion.

Furthermore, a technical issue with the data and timing system occurred. Rfid tags and readers were used, which work well but can only work well if the participants follow the instructions as given to them at the race briefing and registration.

Some athletes had their chips in their pockets or around their arms or did not wear them at all, which would then mean that we won’t be able to read their chips as the system was setup to only read chips around the ankles. This happens at almost every event especially with first-time participants. All in all I feel that the timing went well except for the obvious being unable to do prize-giving at the event due to the entry file taking a bit longer than anticipated,” said Louis Harmse of the association.

Due to the route queries, data and timing issues, the prize-giving has been postponed until Monday at 17:00, at Mopani Crossings. All winners will be notified individually and all athletes and triathlete enthusiasts are welcome.

Here are the results:

Duathlon Standard Men
1- Mark Smith – 2hrs 26mins 21sec
2- Damion Coon – 2hrs 34mins 25sec
3- Andrew Dickson – 2hrs 42mins 19sec

Duathlon Standard Women
1- Somme Odendaal – 3hrs14mins 49sec
2- Lize Rogers – 3hrs 38mins 32sec

Triathlon Standard Men
1- Asher Biggs – 2hrs 26mins 50sec
2- Roger Mortlock – 2hrs 30mins 27sec
3- Adrian Labuschagne – 3hrs 8mins 50sec

Triathlon Standard Women
1- Elsa De Beer – 3hrs 16mins 13sec
2- Carin Badenhorst – 3hrs 41mins 10sec
3- Pierrette Labuschagne – 3hrs 45mins 15 sec

Duathlon Standard Team
1- Fast and Furious – 2hrs 34mins 25sec
2- Divas – 3hrs 49mins 15sec

Triathlon Standard Team
1- Shaun Henning – 3hrs 6mins 21sec
2- Leana Peters – 3hrs 29mins 46sec
3- Elmarie van Reensburg – 3hrs 33mins 44sec

Triathlon Sprint Men
1- Joshua Bezuidenhout – 1hr 41mins 58sec
2- Jacques Burger and Jan-Hendrick De Villiers – 1hr 42mins 1sec

Triathlon Sprint Team
1- Bergies – 1hr 41mins 12sec
Triathlon Sprint Women
1- Linzie Dryer – 1h 48mins 27sec
2- Janeen Manders – 1hr 58mins 13sec
3- Sume Matthysen – 2hrs 6mins 38sec
Duathlon Sprint Men
1- Matebula Bongani – 1hr 21mins 1sec
2- Mamogale Bethel – 1hr 30mins 57sec
3- Ewie Rust – 1hr 40mins 42sec
Duathlon Sprint Women
1- Chante Dixon – 1hr 24mins 36sec
2- Kirsten Gillespie – 1hr 32mins 55sec
3- Adri Kruger – 1hr 35mins 27sec
Duathlon Sprint Team
1- Need for Speed – 1hr 35mins 57sec
2- Jaco Hatting – 2hrs 3mins 11sec
3- Felicia Hatting – 2hrs 16mins 33sec
Triathlon Super Sprint Men
1- Luan Steyn – 52mins 17sec
2- Kian Mouton – 54mins 51sec
3- Markus Steyn – 54mins 55sec
Triathlon Super Sprint Women
1- Mikalea Goelst -1hr 4mins 41sec
2- Marli Eloff – 1hr 18mins 43sec
3- Wanika Du Plessis – 1hr 27mins 55sec
Triathlon Super Sprint Team
1- Tom, Dick and Harry – 1hr 17mins 30sec
2- Andre, Shea and Sune – 1hr 17mins 42sec
3- Soaring Eagles – 1hr 30mins 57sec
Duathlon Super Sprint Men
1- Gabriel Burns
2- Stephan De Langer
3- Samuel Odendaal
Duathlon Super Sprint Women
1- Lizelle De Langer – 1hr 28mins 31sec
2- Tylo Roux
3- Jani van der Merwe
Duathlon Super Sprint Team
1- Leandre Du Plessis – 1hr 47mins 42sec
Duathlon Kids Boys
1- Armand Dixon
2- Jef Badenhorst
3- Louis Odendaal
Duathlon Kids Girls
1- Micaela Baird
Duathlon Kids Teams
1- Young flyers
2- Avengers
Duathlon Nippers Boys
1- Callum Baird
2- William Field
3- Liam Hofman
Duathlon Nippers Girls
1- Janne Badenhorst
2- Jocelyn Field
3- Zianay Rademeyer

Also read: Matt Beers leads the Mpumalanga Cycle Tour on day 6