Vusumuzi Dube
Ricky Zililo in Nyanga
SHANAE Williams of South Africa put up a stunning show to shrug off fierce competition from her training partner Barbara De Koning to claim gold in the elite women’s category of the Bonaqua Triathlon Africa Cup Troutbeck yesterday.
Racing in an improved field compared to last year’s event which had six participants, Williams, runner-up to Ivana Kuriachova of Slovakia in 2022, tightly won yesterday’s continental competition by crossing a few seconds ahead of De Koning of Netherlands.
Slovakia’s Romana Gajdosova came third in the women’s category.
The 15th edition of the Bonaqua Triathlon Africa Cup Troubeck, watched by Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation, Kirsty Coventry had 12 elite women competitors.
An elated Williams who will be competing in London, United Kingdom next weekend said the Troutbeck meet’s course was difficult to navigate through.
“I came into this race with some jet leg having arrived in South Africa from competing in New Zealand last Monday before proceeding to Zimbabwe.
It was quite a challenging course and it was a tight race. I’ve been training with Barbara for the past months and we pushed each other to the finishing line.
“It was good that I came top front in swim, went well with the bike and it was in transitions where it mattered most as I got it right.
I’m happy to have won this race and now have to get into a solid block of recovery as I prepare to race in London next weekend,” said Williams.
In the elite men’s race, pre-competition favourite and 2021 winner Ayan Beisenbayev of Kazakhstan came a distant fourth in an event won by Irish athlete James Edgar who was closely followed by Dylan Nortje of South Africa.
The elite men’s bronze medal went to Jorge Alarcon Familiar of Mexico. Zimbabwe did not have representatives in the senior elite categories of the competition.
A total of 22 athletes entered the senior men’s elite race while for the women, there were 12 competitors.
Co-sponsored by Simbisa Brand, Cimas i-Go, CFAO Motor Group, EcoCash and Rooneys, the 15th edition of the Bonaqua Triathlon Africa Cup Troutbeck had 51 international athletes, including elite juniors.
The international participants were drawn from countries such as Chile, Austria, Kazakhstan, Togo, Mauritius, Morocco, South Africa, Poland, Ireland, Ukraine, Bermuda, Finland, Netherlands, Slovakia, Romania, Japan and Guam.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s pair of Shaun Wolfaardt and Kadence Ribbink successfully defended their junior men and women’s titles.
The pair comfortably won their races that had nine participants in each category, as they ensured that South Africa dominated the competition claiming all the top three positions.
In the junior men’s race, Nathan Forster came a distant second to claim silver with Kyle Erkisine crossing the finish line third. Zimbabwe’s Duwan Botha was forced to withdraw midway through his running race after complaining of having difficulties in breathing.
Botha’s withdrawal during the race left Mutare-based Mandlenkosi Mthethwa as Zimbabwe’s only representative in the men’s race, with the latter disappointingly coming last on position eight.
In the junior women’s category, Lowe Gouws and Mia Van Der Veen (both South Africa) finished second and third respectively, with Zimbabwe’s Anje Van As coming fourth.
Van As had started her race well, coming out of the swim and cycling second to Ribbink with a comfortable distance from Gouws, but the Zimbabwean representative crumbled during her run.
Nicole Madya, another Zimbabwean junior women’s competitor was fifth, while Makanaka Mawere failed to finish the race after getting a puncture during her cycling.
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Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter