Runners took on a hard-hitting stage two (over two days) of the Thirsti AfricanX Xplore, which took place at Hartbeespoort in North West.
Stage two reportedly had a tougher 4.7km mid-section that was a good learning experience for the flagship event, the upcoming three-day stage race.
According to public relations manager, Jacky McClean, the rest of the stage featured easy to moderate trails that were a lot of fun, while the last three km was super-fast.
“Retsepile Khotle from Thokoza, Alberton and Anneleen Swanepoel from Centurion continued their winning streaks by securing victories in deserving times of 1:10:30 and one 1:34:03 respectively,” she said.
Khotle, who bagged a gold medal, said the start of stage two was enjoyable as he controlled the lead from about 3km into the race. He said the chasing group was far from him.
“I tried to accelerate a bit in the single-track sections so that when we reached the flat sections, I’d have a better lead. When I reached the foot of the hills I could see three runners, but they were far from me. The rest of the course was technical, but I was very careful, and I saw that I had a good gap on the rest of the runners,” he said.
This according to Khotle was the most enjoyable part of the stage for him. He said he was thrilled to have brought home the gold medal.
“I can recommend this event to other runners. The journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step. This is the single step. From here we will see more people taking part. I would like many more people to share this experience with us,” he explained.
Khotle completed stage one and two, a combined distance of about 36km, in a combined time of 2:26:54.
Thabang Madiba secured the second spot on the podium, with Bradley Claase finishing third.
