Martin Freyer and Anri Greeff were crowned Namibia’s MTB marathon champions after impressive rides at the Waldschmidt National MTB Marathon Championships over the weekend.
In the men’s 75km race, Freyer set the pace, pulling away from the start to eventually finish in 3:27:40 – nearly 25 minutes ahead of Xavier Papo (3:52:07), while Petrus Human, who won the sub veteran men’s category, came third overall in 3:54:08.
Frewer’s victory saw him winning the national title for the first time, after finishing second last year, and follows on his recent win at the Rotary Club Namibian Cycle Classic.
Last year Frewer narrowly missed out on the title when Theuns van der Westhuizen beat him in a sprint to the line, and Frewer said it was great to finally win the title.
“It’s the first time that I’ve won the marathon national championships. I’ve won the road championships, the time trial, short track and E-Bikes, but the marathon is the one I haven’t won yet, so I’m very happy to win that, and it means a lot,” he said.
In the women’s 75km race, Greeff and Vera Looser produced a great contest, with Greeff building up a two-minute lead on the first lap, before Looser came back to narrow the deficit to about 100m halfway through the second. Greeff, however, managed to hold on to the lead and went on to win the title in 3:58:33, with Looser just under a minute behind in 3:59:32, while Delsia Janse van Vuuren came third in 4:50:11.
The win saw Greeff winning the national marathon championships for the first time, after coming second to Looser for the past few years, while it also continues her recent winning streak, following victory at both the road race and the gravel race of the Rotary Club Namibian Cycle Classic.
Her victory will also put her in the running for an Olympic spot at the Los Angeles Games as competition for places starts to intensify.
“We are aiming to get two places for the women at the LA Olympics and all three ladies on the podium will battle it out for those two places. We will try to qualify one in the road race and one in the mountain bike race, but if they are in LA they will be allowed to do both races,” national coach Hans du Toit said.
“The qualifying races for the Olympics have just started, and next year there will be several more events including – the national champs and the African champs, as well as the African Games will be the main competitions where we will try and get a qualifying spot for Namibia,” he added.
Du Toit, meanwhile leaves for Kenya on Sunday with a young national team to compete at the Africa Road Race Championships in Kisumu.
The Namibian team consists of Marco and Rosemarie Thiel, Mike Baartman and Justus Beulker.
“We decided to take some junior riders this year and Mike Baartman is also preparing for the Olympic Youth Games in Senegal, so when we come back, we will fly out to Dakar again,” he said.
The Waldschmidt National MTB Marathon Championships saw a big turnout of cyclists competing in various age group categories as well as E-bikes over a full 75km marathon or 38km half marathon at the IJG Trails at Farm Windhoek.
Human comfortably won the sub veteran men’s category, followed by Michael Falk (4:15:21), while Nataneal Joel won the men’s u23 category; Braam Vermeulen won the veteran mens category; and Hans du Toit the masters men’s category.
