A double African title was enough to create a convincing case for this year’s African Female Triathlete of the Year. As was the case with the winner of the African men’s mantle, the athlete in question enjoyed a comeback of sorts and ended her season with a best World Cup finish since 2017.
Vicky Van Der Merwe (RSA)
Vicky Van Der Merwe was in blazing form as she claimed the African titles over the Olympic and Sprint distance. In doing so, she beat her continental rivals head-to-head at least once.
What stood out the most was the manner of her victories. In Blue Bay, over the Sprint distance, Van Der Merwe won by 1 minute 22 seconds. Then, at the Olympic distance championships in Hurghada, she won by a whopping 2 minutes 34 seconds.
Far from being close, she was decisively the best athlete when it counted.
There were not a lot of major WTCS performances among the African women this year, although there were a couple of noteworthy World Cup showings. On that front, Van Der Merwe contributed with a good World Cup display of her own.
She finished her season with 20th place at the Vina del Mar World Cup. Back in 2017, she finished 20th at the Cape Town World Cup and so a fair amount of time had passed between her visits into the top-20.
Only two other women made it into the top-20 of the World Cup this year (Shanae Williams finished 11th in Tongyeong while Hannah Newman finished 18th in Huatulco). When combined with her African Championships success, then, Van Der Merwe takes the title of the African Female Triathlete of 2023.
Honourable mentions
Shanae Williams had the best World Cup finish of the year with her performance in Tongyeong. To go with that, she won the African Cup in Troutbeck and finished 2nd at the African Cup in Maselspoort. She also ended the year as the top ranked African woman.
As a result, it is by no means clear-cut to separate her from Van Der Merwe. Nevertheless, the dominance of Van Der Merwe’s African titles, (Williams finished a distant 3rd at the Olympic distance race) ultimately proved key.
Amber Schlebusch had a very impressive season and won the Americas Cup in Sarasota and the Asia Cup in Hong Kong. She therefore was the most successful African woman outside of her home continent. In that respect, her experience racing in the NCAA in America may have served her well.
Like Williams, Schlebusch was beaten comprehensively by Van Der Merwe at the African Championships and that head-to-head difference was influential. On the other hand, Schlebusch actually edged Van Der Merwe in terms of world rankings points scored in the past 12 months. She scored 1443 points to Van Der Merwe’s 1440, giving her the slenderest of wins.
Kahina Mebarki also gets an honourable mention as the best non-South African woman. She finished 4th and 3rd at the African Championships over the Olympic and Sprint distances, respectively.
Based on the results of this year, there is no obvious leader in the African women’s field. For that reason, the race to claim the African women’s Olympic New Flag slot will be among the most intense of the coming months.
