North Coast warriors push through for gold

If training to survive an apocalypse was a sport, then Claude and Trish Eksteen would surely be the world’s best hope.

The husband and wife team – who own the Adventure Obstacle Training (AOT) course in Ballito – both competed in and won their respective categories in the punishing Warrior Race in Johannesburg last weekend.

The Warrior Race combines speed, strength and technical ability as participants hustle to overcome obstacles on the way to the finish line.

“In the Black Ops Elite category (the most difficult) we cover 15km, while encountering 32 obstacles on the way. The elite tag means that every obstacle must be passed in order to finish the race. You can try an obstacle as many times as you like, as long as you complete it before moving on,” said Claude.

The obstacles vary from climbs and crawls, to 25kg carries and tire drags.

All are designed to target different muscle groups and drain the competitor, which means that simply finishing any of the categories is an achievement unto itself.

Aside from Black Ops, there were also Commando (10km, 22 obstacles), Rookie (5km, 15 obstacles) and Kids (1km, 8 obstacles) categories, ensuring fitness fundis of all levels could test themselves.

For Claude and Trish however, just finishing was never in doubt and the duo powered to gold in the Black Ops Elite men and women races respectively.

They were entered in the 40+ category, but beat all open contenders in their genders as well.

It was not all plain sailing however, and heavy rain near the course last week meant that it was a muddy event.

“The mud made it extra taxing, but by far the most difficult thing to compete with was the ‘breaking point’ obstacle. It was a 24m climbing rig with littlemore than tennis balls for grip that they put as the final obstacle! We just had to collect ourselves and push through to the finish,” he said.

This was made all the more difficult given that the Warrior Race had not been held for 2 years because of the pandemic.

Nevertheless, 20 AOT members made the trip to Johannesburg and delivered strong performances across a variety of categories.

Claude finished in 1 hour 13 minutes, with Trish finishing in 1 hour 49.

For a full list of results, visit warrior.co.za.

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