Vorster breaks through the pain barrier

MICHELLE Vorster and Alex Miller both comfortably retained their titles at the Namibian National Mountain Bike Marathon Championships which were held at Midgard Country Estate on Saturday.

Vorster won the Elite Women’s event for the sixth year in a row in a time of 3:11:57, which was also the 12th fastest overall time.

She finished nearly 20 minutes ahead of Courtney Liebenberg (3:31:48), while Irene Steyn came third in 3:39:36.

It was another impressive performance by Vorster, especially after she was involved in a heavy crash after about a third of the distance.

“At 22km into the race, I hit a hole in the track that completely blindsided me and caused me to go over the handlebars really hard and at speed,” she posted on her website, michellevorster.com

“When I got up at least nothing felt broken, but I first had to fix my skew handlebars and shifted my brake levers, and experiencing incredible pain in my right elbow, I was worried that my plate screws might tick out,” she said, referring to an earlier accident, which led to plate screws being inserted in her arm.

“My rear derailleur bent badly, resulting in the rest of my race having to deal with slipping gears that just kept jumping off between my granny gear and wheel spokes on the climbs. My arm was bleeding so much and the pain was excruciating!” she added.

“When I crossed the finish line eventually, I was really relieved and I was so happy to have defended my national title. The sixth national mountain bike marathon title is one I will remember for good and bad reasons, but it still feels as exhilarating as the first one – happy, but bruised,” she said.

Miller won the Elite Men’s category over 65km in two hours 37 minutes 38 seconds to finish more than 13 minutes ahead of Xavier Papo (2:51:20), while Danzel de Koe came third in 3:09:15.

They were followed by Dieter Koen (3:10:17), Drikus Coetzee (3:13:27) and Julian Nel (3:13:54).

Ingram Cuff won the Sub Veteran Men’s category in 2:46:03, followed by Braam Vermeulen (3:05:59) and Christiaan Bean (3:06:52), while Carmen Johannes won the Sub Veteran Women’s category in 3:45:24, followed by Gabriela Raith (3:51:11) and Maike Bochert (4:11:46).

Clinton Hilfiker won the Veteran Men’s category in 2:56:28, followed by Mannie Heymans (2:59:11) and Hans du Toit (3:11:32), while Johanita de Waal won the Veteran Women’s category in 3:46:28, followed by Marion Schonecke (4:17:39) and Anneke Steenkamp (4:28:48).

Piet Swiegers won the Master men’s category in 2:57:40, followed by Stefan Bohlke (3:11:55) and Nick du Plessis (3:25:14), while Wilmien Chaimberlain won the Mater Women’s category in 3:50:21, followed by Erna Opperman in 5:15:49.

Herklaas Viljoen won the Grand Master Men’s category in 3:59:39, followed by Ben Dauth (4:27:23) and Peter Sander, while Elke Jagau won the Grand Master Women’s category in 4:24:47.

Peter Le Riche won the Rhino Men’s category in 3:30:30, followed by Hardus Burger (4:04:08) and Freddy van Zyl (4:11:24).