Alongside the African Cup racing, an African Junior Cup also took place in Nelson Mandela Bay.
Men’s race
In a field containing twenty-seven South African athletes and three from Zimbabwe, Christian Hattingh led the way in the swim. By the time he arrived into T1, he had a 10 second gap over the next best athlete, Jamie Smuts.
Hattingh, though, quickly pulled away from Smuts on the bike and it briefly looked as if he would ride alone. A trio of Shaun Wolfaardt, Louis Terblanche and Kyle Erskine were able to catch Hattingh. Together, the front quartet built a substantial lead over the field.
As the defending African Junior champion, the race seemed to be in Wolfaardt’s hands. That would ultimately prove to be the case as he ran away from his breakaway companions to take the win by 16 seconds.
Erskine took the silver medal. Neither Terblanche nor Hattingh had the speed on the run to contend with Wolfaardt or Erskine. In the end it was Terblanche that held on for bronze.
Further behind, Divan De Vries and Francois De Villiers had the fastest run splits, running 16:12 and 16:49, respectively. By comparison, Wolfaardt ran 17:33.
De Vries and De Villiers gave themselves too much work to do, though, after the first two disciplines to be a part of the medal conversation.
Women’s race
From the off, the women’s race was a one-woman show.
Britney Brown of America was the only non-African athlete on the start list. Having recently finished 6th at the North American Junior Championships in Sarasota, the Junior Cup was a valuable opportunity for racing experience.
In the end, it turned into a time trial as opposed to a race.
Brown led the swim with a split of 10:20, over 30 seconds clear of the next best woman. A field-leading bike split of 33:28 followed. The next fastest athlete on the bike rode a 34:27 so by the time she arrived in T2 Brown’s win was, barring catastrophe, in the bag.
She did not have the fastest run split of the day. Instead, Brown had to settle for the second fastest split (19:38). Silver medallist Anika Visser ran 18:59 to separate herself from the chasing group.
Brown, though, would ultimately win by 1 minute 59 seconds and was in complete control throughout.
Kadence Ribbink came home to take bronze, 1 minute 23 seconds behind Visser.
View the full results here.
