Walvis Bay — After a very successful event in 2009, FNB Namibia again supported the 2-day Endurance Ride, which took place on the 2nd of this month at the harbour town, to the tune of N$50,000.00.

In response to FNB's ongoing support, Namibia Endurance decided to officially call the competition the FNB Africa Endurance Championship.

Hosts Nambia entered three teams in various categories, South Africa also entered three and a senior team came all the way from Germany, while a significant number of individual riders also took part, bringing the total number of entries to 186 of which 156 finished the ride.

The competition is undoubtedly the biggest horse endurance ride in the entire Southern Hemisphere.

The various competition divisions were won by: Senior Heavyweight Riders - George Wessels on Aracos Armak; Senior Standard Weight Riders - Collen Tjandja on El Sham Khemo; Senior No Weight Riders - Martell Dormehl on Romeo; TYOung Riders - Alice Krenz on Hidalgo; 120km Child Ride - Chane Viljoen on Zabubega Hakim.

In the 30 km ride, the winners were Tinus van Heerden in the Senior Riders category on Blade; Young Riders category, Tuffany Walther on Kiara; and Nester Neethling on Tida won the Child Riders category.

Dieter Voigts, Chairman of the FNB Namibia Holdings Board, said: "It is an honour and a privilege for FNB to once again be associated with one of the fastest-growing extreme sports in the world!

"Endurance riding has seen tremendous growth in Namibia over the last 20 years and riders from all over the world are wishing to compete in this magnificent and utterly challenging ride for both horse and rider."

Secretary of Namibia Endurance, Annette Hanekom, thanked FNB Namibia for their support.

"As this ride is an official FEI ride, we have to import qualified FEI officials for the competition. This practice is quite costly as many of them came from South Africa and we have to cough up for their travelling and accommodation, plus expenses for the Namibian riders as well."