Ballito’s iron men conquer Africa champs
The ocean threw an additional curve ball at athletes by serving up a flotilla of bluebottles.
Two of Ballito‘s fittest recently clocked impressive times in one of the toughest sporting events on the planet; the Ironman Africa Championships.
Imagine swimming in the sea from Westbrook to Ballito, then cycling from Ballito to Durban and back twice and then running from Ballito to Growthpoint Kings Park all in one day. That is the equivalent of a full Ironman consisting of a three point eight kilometre ocean swim followed by a 180 kilometre bicycle ride and finally a full marathon.
Renaldo Ogle completed his maiden Ironman Africa Championship in Port Elizabeth on Sunday, April 10 in 12:11:06 and Cavin Noah did his fourth Ironman in a personal best time of 11:46:06.
To put their achievements into perspective, more than half of participants come in after 16 hours, before the 17 hours cut-off time.
The event started at 7 am with cut-off at midnight.
Neither athletes are happy with their performances. Ogle was aiming for sub 12 hours and Noah for sub 11.
“My swim was slower than I had planned because of big swells and lots of chop on the water on the day,” said Ogle.
The ocean threw an additional curve ball at athletes by serving up a flotilla of bluebottles.
“Some guys got stung and were taken out of the water,” said Ogle.”
Conditions were perfect for cycling with very little wind. However, Ogle said a lot of guys pushed too hard on the bike and suffered for it on the run.
“I saved a lot of time in the transition zones. My total transition time was only four minutes where some people spent about half an hour sitting around,” said Ogle.
Noah attributed his “disappointing” performance to his run.
“I knew it was going to be a long run when I got off the bike,” said Noah, who was stung by a jelly fish on his hand but carried on swimming.
Noah, a Comrades athlete, said a full Ironman was mentally tougher than the Comrades Marathon.
The next big event on the Ironman calendar is the Ironman 70.3 in Durban on June 19 in which Ogle will be participating for charity.
Anyone interested in supporting him can contact him at renaldoogle@hotmail.com.
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