Hayley Smith gracious in defeat at Sappi Scottburgh MTB
The track was very muddy after heavy rain the week before the race.
TWO qualities were evident in Hayley Smith, one of the South Coast’s top riders, at the ninth edition of the Sappi Scottburgh MTB last Sunday, where she finished in second place in the women’s 45km race.
The first was her humility in defeat. Instead of being disappointed not to have won the women’s title three days after her 23rd birthday, she was full of praise for the winner, Bianca Haw.
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“It’s really good to have Bianca back racing again. She is a really talented athlere and deserves the win. I wish her all the best with her world championships cross-country race coming up in Australia next month,” she said.
The second was Hayley’s love for the sport. “I really enjoyed the race and loved the course set out by Flavio Scarpa, although it was quite tough to do after some heavy rain during the week,” she said.
She congratulated the organisers on another fantastic event in Scottburgh.
Overall, she has had a good year to date, focusing on some of the longer events, which she said had been fun.
Hayley has been dominating the South Coast MTB Series but Bianca’s presence gave her more of a challenge and unfortunately she had to settle for second.
South Coaster Nataschka Mowat rounded out the top five.
“I still have some nice events to do this year, and am extremely lucky and grateful to have Bell Equipments as my sponsors, to make it possible to race in all these events,” said Hayley.
Andrew Hill won the men’s race, seeing off his former riding partner Tyronne White.
“It is an honour to have been able to win this race two years in a row and to have my name on a trophy that has Burry Stander’s name on it is an even greater privilege,” he said.
45km
Men: 1 Andrew Hill 1:45:44; 2 Tyronne White 1:45:45; 3 Jedson Tooms 1:47:34.
Women: 1 Bianca Haw 1:54:38; 2 Hayley Smith 2:04:44; 3 Desiree Chantal Verwey 2:12:00.
20km
Men: 1 Matthew Opperman 1:20:48; 2 Nicholas de Bruin 1:22:34.
Women: 1 Chloe Bateson 1:22:40; 2 Anesca Swart 1:44:36.
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