eMalahleni athletes return home as ‘ironmen and woman’
Sanet was a machine once again at the Ironman as she finished second in her age category
Gerald Snell video of him finishing the Isuzu IronMan African championships:
The group of athletes from eMalahleni who all went down to Nelson Mandela Bay for the Isuzu IronMan African championships returned home with well-deserved medals and the title ‘Ironman.’
After months and months of training and preparation for the IronMan it all came down to one day putting all three disciplines into action and seeing how the body would manage.
Athletes started pouring into Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) on Thursday, March 31 already as many athletes wanted to get a sea swim in before the big day.
Patrice Gautier finishing his Isuzu IronMan African championships:
On Saturday, April 2 athletes had to get their various bags packed and sorted out before taking them to their pens where they were hung up and so were their bicycles for the night.
On Sunday morning, April 3 the tri-athletes woke up to a very dark, wet and gloomy Nelson Mandela Bay.
The rolling sea swim start was supposed to start at 06:45; the organisers cancelled the swim for the full IronMan and the 70.3 IronMan as the water was too rough.
However, the swim was shortened to 700m for the pro athletes and they started the swim just after 07:00.
At 08:00 the athletes doing the IronMan African Championships started their cycle and at 08:30 the IronMan 70.3 athletes started their cycle.
Once the athletes started their full IronMan, they had 222.2km to finish for the day; that was a total of 180km on the bicycle and 42.2km run.
The 70.3 athletes had a total of 111.2 km’s for the day to finish, which was 90.1km on the bike and 21.1km run.
The rain and strong winds did not make it easy for the athletes.
With the consistent support from the crowd along the route, they kept motivating their athletes not to give up.
The people who competed in the 70.3 IronMan were Kallie van Zyl who finished in a time of 4:58:10 and Gideon Broodryk finished in a time of 5:04:47.
Four athletes competed in the IronMan African Championships; they were Patrice Gautier, Gerald Snell, Cobus Fourie and Sanet Griesel.
Patrice was doing well on the ride and he was consisting third in the cycle.
Once he started running, he had a good run in the beginning and then his left calf started to bother again.
“I hurt my calf at the TinMan and it decided to come back and bother me. At one stage I could see the front guys. I was in a lot of pain, but knew I had to just keep to my race plan,” said Patrice.
Patrice finished in a time of 10:08:09 and finished in 10th place in his age category 50-54.
Gerald had a good cycle and even better run. He managed to finish his race in 10:06:15.
Sanet was a machine again and she completed her race in a time of 9:55:07.
She finished in second place in her age category 50-54.
Cobus is the one person who is not afraid of competing in the IronMan as on Sunday he finished his 38th IronMan.
It was a long day on the road for him, but no matter what, he just pushed on and on until the end.
He finished in a time of 12:36:11.
These men and woman all pushed their bodies once again to the limit and in a few weeks after recovery, they will be back on their bikes or putting their feet back into their running tekkies for a casual jog or they will start training for next year’s IronMan.
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