The South African Obstacle Course Racing community has grown at an intense rate over the last couple of years, not only in numbers, but also in competitiveness.

This became clear when elite adventure sport athlete, Tian Basson, a maths and social science teacher at Laerskool Bergland, claimed second place at the recent South African OCR Championships that came down to the wire in Blythedale, KwaZulu-Natal.
He finished 40 seconds behind the winner, Claude Eksteen.

“The race started with Armin Botha and myself setting a fast pace from the get go. Around nine kilometres into the race I was in a bad place, with extreme achilles pain and thoughts of stopping to prevent serious injury. I prayed and it worked.

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I got on the flat section and started hunting the other contestants down. At the end it was an outright battle for the top spot, with me losing my shoe somewhere along the line. Well done to Eksteen for taking the top spot. It is an awesome feeling coming second at nationals. Now working hard for the next race at Mbombela Stadium this weekend,” he said.

“All honour goes to God for helping me through not only the race, but everything before and after,” he added.
Unfortunately Basson could not participate in the sprint race on the day due to his injury.

In Bloemfontein, in the second Warrior Race held on March 2, he came third in the men’s sprint race (100 metres and eight obstacles) and also set up the fastest time of the day on the sprint course.

In Gauteng Toyota Warrior Race #3, held on April 6, he came fourth in the men’s sprint race.
He has also qualified to represent South Africa in the OCR World Championships to be held in London from October 9 to 13.