Bahlmann retains warrior-title, Eksteen wins fourth leg
Supa Mama's Trish Bahlmann (39) returned to the Lowveld to defend her Warrior Race title in the black-ops elite category at Kwanyoni Lodge on Sunday.
She completed the 30 demanding obstacles over a 15-kilometre trail course in a time of one hour
56 minutes and 56 seconds – almost three minutes ahead of Hanneké Dannhauser (28).
Dannhauser recently returned to the Warrior Race scene after suffering a neck injury.
Last year Bahlmann and Dannhauser were the only women who were able to conquer this course, and did so in just over two hours. Despite a desperate attempt by Dannhauser, Bahlmann crossed the finish line first.
This year was no different.
Dannhauser was just seconds behind Bahlmann over the fourth obstacle, the Barrel Run. Leading into the Rope Traverse, she closed the gap.
Dannhauser caught up in the middle of the dam, but Bahlmann left the waters first.
Bahlmann was able to open a huge gap leading into the next obstacle, Balance Beam.
By the 16th obstacle, Spider Trap, she was more than two minutes ahead of her opponent.
Dannhauser was unable to make up the time, but still managed to finish strong.
“Trish ran very hard, but I am still happy with my second place knowing that I only recently came back after being injured for two months,” said Dannhauser.
Multiple top-10 finisher at ITU Triathlon World Cup level, Supa Mama’s Claude Eksteen (40) is the newly crowned champion of the Toyota Warrior Race, at Kwanyoni Lodge.
Warrior favourite, Thomas van Tonder (25), who took silver last year, once again had to be happy with a second-place finish.
The Rope Climb was fairly easing taking runners down the orchards to the Monster Climb.
Eksteen was first in the waters, but Van Tonder managed to climb strong up the Tower of Rage to take the lead.
As Eksteen and Van Tonder made their way up the summit to the third obstacle, Tipping Point, Eksteen broke away and Van Tonder could not manage to close the gap.
“I couldn’t catch up to Claude. My running felt good, but I had to push hard. The downhills were super fast,” said Van Tonder.
Eksteen extended his lead by almost 35 seconds going into Mission Impossible (a 2,5-metre jump) and from there following the last few obstacles, Van Tonder fell behind.
The 40-year-old won with a time of 01:29:12 with Van Tonder 0,47 behind in second position.
“I am happy with my performance. Next up is KwaZulu-Natal, which is Claude’s home province. I would love to beat him,” added Van Tonder.
A local athlete from Core 360, Ulrich Carshagen finished overall seventh in a time of 01:34:15, followed by teammates, Dewald Meyer (19th, 01:49:23) and Harshil Mitha (26th, 02:02:18).
“The course was very challenging. I have only started to compete in the elite category this year and have completed the first three Warrior Races in 2017. I was very well prepared going into Sunday’s race,” said Carshagen.
