Wolfaardt, Steyn 2009 champions

Potchefstroom’s Erhard Wolfaardt and Andrea Steyn of Pretoria were crowned the 2009 BSG Energade Triathlon Series senior champions, after the final race of this seven-event competition, at the North-West University Vaal in Vanderbijlpark on Sunday morning (December 6).

While Wolfaardt finished on a high note with an easy win in the men’s division, Steyn had to be content with a second place finish in the race as old foe and one of the few athletes to beat her this year, Kate Roberts, claimed her second victory of the series.

Having already won five races going into the final, the result for Steyn was purely academic as she had already wrapped up the series nearly a month ago and only had to start in Vanderbijl to be crowned the women’s champion.

The same was also the case for Wolfaardt who crossed the line first on six occasions in the series this year. The only blemish on his result card being recorded last week when Cape Town’s Richard Murray ended the lanky Potch star’s 11 race winning streak in the competition in the penultimate race of the series in Port Elizabeth.

Putting the disappointment of finishing as runner-up at Pollock Beach behind him, Wolfaardt came out firing on all cylinders at the Vaal to claim a comfortable victory in 52:43. This determined effort saw him finish 24 seconds clear of Dutch Olympian, Sander Berk (53:07) who came second for the fifth time in the series. This meant Berk also received the runners-up check for the series.

Third in the race and overall in the series was Claude Eksteen (53:19) of Durban with last week’s winner, Murray coming fourth in 54:30 and Pretoria’s Berndt Burger fifth in 55:15. Speaking after his series triumph – his second in as many years – Wolfaardt said he would be taking a two week break before starting base training for next year, when he hopes to compete in a few World Cup races.

The BSG Energade Triathlon Series win also caps a year in which he won the SA and African Triathlon Championships and was runner-up in the Jo’burg Tri Series and the recent Africa Cup event in Pretoria.

For Steyn it was the third time she took the trophy as the top senior women’s athlete in the competition despite Roberts outclassing her on two occasions, in Cape Town two weeks ago and again on Sunday in Vanderbijl.

Commenting on her performance in the last race, Steyn said she struggled in the 600m swim and then battled to get her wetsuit off. This meant she left transition for the 20km cycle stage nearly a minute behind Roberts and 2007 series champion and this year’s Ironman women’s winner, Czech Olympian, Lucie Zelenkova.

“Kathryn (Cronje) helped me a lot during the bike to catch the bunch behind Kate and Lucie and then Ashleigh (Blackwell) and I tried to close the gap on them (Kate and Lucie) but it was just too much,” said the champion who, after a long season of racing, is looking forward to some rest.

Knowing she would need at least a 30 second lead on Steyn, going into the final 5km run stage of the race if she wanted to finish the series with a win, Roberts was grateful that she was able to work well with Zelenkova during the cycle stage to stay well clear of Steyn.

“It helped having Lucie with me and we worked well together on the bike which meant I could go out of transition for the run quite a bit ahead of Andrea,” said a thrilled Roberts of Bloemfontein. A fact that ultimately helped her secure victory in 59:46 with Steyn a full minute behind in 1:00:46.

Zelenkova, who had not competed in any of this year’s BSG Energade Triseries races until today, preferring to concentrate on competing in long distance events, did not have the speed to stay clear of Steyn and ended up finishing third in 1:02:02.

With two wins and five second place finishes, Roberts collected the runner-up prize for the series with Cape Town’s Vicky van der Merwe, who did not finish the Vanderbijl race because of medical reasons, taking third prize for the series.

Juniors

The one division in the competition where the result in the final would determine who would be the series champion for 2009, was in the junior women’s section. Three girls, Lauren Dance of Boksburg, Carlyn Fischer of Pretoria and Ashleigh Blackwell of Cape Town were involved in a winner-takes-all race with Dance and Fischer going into the race one point clear of Blackwell.

Despite Blackwell putting in a big effort in the swim and on the bike, she was unable to outclass Fischer on the run and the latter crossed the line in 1:01:56 to win the race and the series (for the second year in a row). Blackwell’s second place finish in 1:02:49 was also not enough for her to collect the runner-up prize for the series. This accolade went to Dance who finished third at the Vaal in a time of 1:05:51 leaving Blackwell to collect the third prize for the overall competition.

There was no drama in the junior men’s division where last year’s champion, Abrahm Louw of Potchefstroom won his sixth straight race in the series – he missed the fourth race in Germiston – to again be crowned the champ.

The 17-year-old is clearly in a class of his own winning in a time of 53:36 with his closest rivals on the day being local hero, Rudolf Naude who came second in 56:08 and Durban’s Henri Schoeman third in 56:40. This effort also saw Naude finish second in the series with Wian Sullwald of Bela Bela collecting the third prize for the overall series.

Veterans

There were no surprises in the veteran’s division where, as expected, Durban’s Glen Gore won the men’s race in 57:02 to clinch the series. Second was Patrick Hofer in 59:33 and Piers Pirow third in 1:01:12. This is also how they finished in the series standings.

In the veteran women’s race, Pretoria’s Lynette Fischer gave her all to beat Sue Peterkin by two seconds to claim her second victory in the series in a time of 1:09:37. This was not enough however, for her to win the series as perennial winner Sue Peterkin, who won the first four races in the competition, missing race five in Cape Town and race six in PE, had already done enough to be crowned the series champion in this category.

It is the second year in a row that Peterkin, also of Pretoria won the title and Fischer has had to be satisfied with the runner-up prize. Third at the Vaal was Jacqui Pitt in 1:17:27 with Glenvista triathlete Nicci Beswick taking third prize for the series.

In the newly established Master Men’s category, Charles Naude of Vanderbijlpark won the race in 1:05:22 which also makes him the first champion in this division. Second was Reinhart Manfred in 1:05:28 and third Laurie Stegmann in 1:08:17.

Manfred also collected the cheque for coming second in the series with Cliff Wallace of Potchefstroom collecting the third prize.

This brings to an end another excellent series which saw not only the best triathletes in the country compete for nearly R200 000 in prize money over a two month period at seven venues across the country but also more family participation.

“With loads of kids participating in the BSG Energade Kids Triathlon Series and their parent/s competing in the main series for adults and an increase in the more serious juniors numbers in this, the 15th year of the competition, the 2009 series was one of the best ever,” said organizer Corné Grobler.

“As the main aim of the event is to get people active and participating in triathlon in a safe environment, we have certainly achieved our objectives and suggest prospective BSG Energade Triathlon Series participants start training early in the new year to be ready for next year’s series which is set to start in October,” concludes Grobler.