Namibia's upcoming young mountain bike riders put in some fine performances, winning six medals at the second leg of the South Africa Cup MTB series in Pietermaritzburg over the weekend.
Competing against South Africa's top young riders, Namibians won three medals at the SA Cup XCC competition on Friday, and another three in the MTB XCO competition on Saturday.
On Friday, Roger Suren won the silver medal in the junior men's category after finishing seven seconds behind the winner Omar Wilson from SA, while just beating another South African Andre van Rooyen in a sprint to the line.
In the junior women's category, Delsia Janse van Vuuren also won silver in a time of 16 minutes 45 seconds after finishing one second behind SA's Errin Mackridge, with SA's Carla Janse van Vuuren third in 16:45.
In the sub junior girls category, Nicole Suren won the bronze medal in 14:52, with SA's Lara van der Vyver taking gold in 14:06 and Mayade Vries silver in 14:22. Namibia's Anne Cramer came sixth in 15:34.
In the youth women's category, Rosemarie Thiel finished fourth in 14:43, with SA's Madison Bateson winning gold in 13:18, Lu-Mari du Plessis silver in 14:02 and Helen Olwage bronze in 14:18.
In the youth men category Sean Lowe came sixth, finishing 10 seconds behind the winner Josh Johnson from SA, while Marco Thiel came sixth, a further 15 seconds behind.
In the elite men's category, Kevin Lowe finished seventh in 22:33, with Jaco van Zyl of SA winning gold in 21:43, after beating Michael Foster in a sprint to the line, while Ernest Roets took bronze in 21:46.
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On Saturday, Namibia won a further three medals in the XCO MTB competition.
Roger Suren once again won silver in the junior men's category in 1:17:47, with Omar Wilson taking gold in 1:15:14 and Jaco van Zyl bronze in 1:17:52.
Delsia Janse van Vuuren won bronze in the junior women's category in 1:23:51, with Jodi Mackinnon of SA winning gold in 1:20:26 and Robyn Chapman silver in 1:20:46.
In the youth men category, Sean Lowe won the bronze medal in 1:02:19, with Joshua Paul of SA winning gold in 1:00:05 and Josh Johnson silver in 1:01:40. Marco Thiel came seventh in the same race in 1:06:20.
In the youth women's category, Rosemarie Thiel came fifth in 1:09:12, finishing more than 12 minutes behind the winner, Madison Bateson (56:37).
In the sub junior women's category, Nicole Suren came sixth in 45:57, with Lara van der Vyver winning gold in 39:47, while Anne Cramer came eighth in 47:01.
Inthe elite men's category, Kevin Lowe came ninth in 1:34:42, with Michael Foster of SA winning gold in 1:25:45, Johan van Zyl silver in 1:25:58 and Massimiliano Ambrosi bronze in 1:27:05.
