Namibian mountain bike riders once again excelled at an international event against South Africa's top riders as well as some other top continental riders over the weekend.
Competing at the fourth leg of the South African Cross Country Series at Thabo Trails outside Johannesburg, Namibian cyclists won four of the seven categories that they competed in and reached seven podium places, winning four gold and three silver medals.
Kevin Lowe and Daniel Hahn once again dominated the junior men's category, like they did when they came first and second at the Koedoeslaagte leg of the SA Cup series in Parys three months ago.
They broke away from the pack from the start and by the end of the first lap, Hahn held a one second lead over Lowe.
Lowe, however, surged into the lead by the second lap and steadily pulled away to an impressive victory as he completed the five-lap race in one hour 54 seconds.
Hahn came second more than two minutes behind in 1:03:13, while Masso Ambrosini of South Africa came third in 1:03:41.
Namibia's Rosemary Thiel won the sub-junior girls category, completing the two-lap race in 31 minutes 59 seconds, with South Africa's Madison Bateson coming second 28 seconds behind, while another South African Lu-Marie du Plessis came third in 33:03.
Namibia's Roger Suren was a comfortable winner of the youth men's category, completing the four-lap race in 52:57, with Omar Wilson of SA second in 53:49, and Troy Jacobs of SA third in 54:56.
Namibians dominated the men's masters category over four laps, with Nick du Plessis winning gold in 1:01:14, followed by compatriot Hans du Toit in 1:02:07, while South Africa's Casper Badenhorst followed well behind in third place in 1:07:59.
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Monique du Plessis won a silver medal in the women's u23 category, completing the six-lap event in 1:46:03, with South Africa's Rimari Sutton winning gold in 1:41:40.
The u23 cyclists competed together with the elite female riders, with Du Plessis finishing fourth overall in the elte category, while Janice Venter of SA won gold in 1:39:34, followed by Sutton and another South African, Lehane Oosthuizen who won the bronze medal in 1:45:30.
Three other Namibian cyclists also finished amongst the top ten in their categories.
In the sub-junior boys category, Marco Thiel and Sean Lowe came fifth and sixth, while Ada Kahl came fourth in the junior women's category.
"It was probably the best performance that Namibia has ever had in an SA Cup. We entered in seven categories of which we won four and seven of the 11 athletes actually made the podium," Namibian coach Hans du Toit said.
"It's probably the biggest cross-country series in Africa and the place where our athletes need to get exposure and experience to reach the next step of competition. The results were really positive especially for our two juniors, Kevin and Daniel, to gain points so that they can compete overseas at the world championships," he said.
"I think nearly all our athletes performed absolutely to the best of their ability, and just listening to the commentator at the event and some of the people around, the respect for Namibian riders is just growing by the day in South Africa," he added.
