After South Africa hosted the first African Cup of 2023 in Maselspoort a few weeks ago, this weekend it was the turn of Nelson Mandela Bay.
The athletes took on the Olympic distance in near-perfect racing conditions. Perhaps the biggest hurdle on the course was entering the water on both swim laps as large waves broke upon the beach.
Women’s race
A small field of sixteen athletes took to the start line. Among those was the winner of the Maselspoort African Cup, Barbara De Koning.
De Koning had one of the best starts in the field but the lead was soon taken by Anne Holm of Denmark. A handful of athletes were able to stay with Holm on the first lap, including the recent winner of the Sarasota Americas Cup Amber Schlebusch. By the end of the swim, though, Holm had turned what was a small field into a tiny front group.
Schlebusch slipped behind but the Dutch trio of De Koning, Rachel Klamer and Rani Skrabanja caught onto Holm’s wheel early in the bike. Over the opening few laps, the front four worked well together to extend their lead from the swim.
Around the midpoint, though, De Koning and Holm made a move to drop Klamer and Skrabanja. At first Klamer seemed like she could rally but the Holm-De Koning duo slipped through her hands. By the end of the bike, they had gained over half a minute on Klamer and Skrabanja. In turn, the main chase group was around 40 seconds down on the two Dutch chasers.
After showing her strength on the swim and bike, Holm’s day was cruelly undone by an ankle injury. She was forced to drop out of the race in the opening kilometre. Having looked in such good form, it was not the ending Holm deserved.
That left De Koning to run alone for the rest of the course. However, her isolation on the course proved no issue as she powered to the fastest run split of the day and took the win by exactly 2 minutes.
Further behind, the chase pack had gained ground on Klamer and Skrabanja. Skrabanja was the first to be caught, with Schlebusch and Tanja Stroschneider leading the hunt.
Klamer’s efforts to withstand the chasers were ultimately in vain. She could do nothing to stop Schlebusch and Stroschneider. Nevertheless, she battled to hold on to her 4th place.
Picking up from her brilliant running display a week ago, Schlebusch pulled away from Stroschneider and showed no lingering ill-effects of injury. Stroschneider crossed the line in 3rd, 37 seconds behind Schlebusch.
Men’s race
Local favourite Jamie Riddle coped best with the early waves in the ocean and he exited the swim in the company of Alois Knabl. A string of athletes, including Andrea Salvisberg, Panagiotis Bitados and James Edgar followed into T1. However, contenders such as Richard Murray and Emil Holm lost valuable time in the swim.
Knabl did not finish the bike course which left an eight man front pack to increase their lead over the chase. Tyler Smith of Bermuda ended up with the fastest bike split (53:19) as he recovered a slight deficit from the swim to make the front pack. The best efforts of the chase did nothing to stop the lead from growing to a minute, then to 2 minutes and beyond.
Over the course of the 10km run, Riddle, Bitados and Edgar emerged as the leading trio of the front group. Smith and Salvisberg lost time and the recipients of the medals were determined. Riddle had the home advantage. Edgar had a recent African Cup bronze medal to his name. Bitados, though, was the most intriguing of the athletes.
Making his first ever international start, the Greek athlete was an unknown quantity. As such, there was no real predicting what he would do next.
Edgar was the first to crack and his race became a challenge of holding off Salvisberg to keep hold of 3rd.
Meanwhile, Murray and Holm were charging through the field to make up places. Murray ran over a minute quicker than the leaders but had been left with too much to do after the bike to really make any impact on the race.
As the race came down to one between Riddle and Bitados, it was Riddle that made the key move in the closing stages to earn a small gap over his younger rival.
The gap began to grow and the win was assured.
Riddle ended up with the fourth fastest run split of the day, a 31:31, demonstrating his strength across all three disciplines. The fastest split did indeed go to Murray who ran 30:14. Holm, meanwhile, was the only other man under 31 minutes as he ran 30:51.
Bitados would cross the line 9 seconds after Riddle while Edgar held on for bronze.
View the full results here.
