Namibians fail to impress at Virtual Racing 8

FOR once Namibian athletes did not perform very well at the eighth leg of the Ironman Virtual Triathlon series over the weekend, with none finishing amongst the medals.

In previous races, Namibian athletes like Risa Dreyer, Divan du Plooy and Mandy Huysamen had excelled against the world’s best after winning or finishing on the podium in their respective age group categories, but this time only Huysamen managed to obtain a top ten place.

She finished ninth out of 153 athletes in the women’s 55-59 year category, and 185th out of 2 966 female athletes overall in a time of two hours 21 minutes 7 seconds.

This was made up of split times of 14:40 for the 3km run; 1:10:05 for the 40km cycle; and 56:22 for the 10km run.

Her times, however, were well below her best for the distance that she achieved at VR6 two weeks ago when she finished second in her age group. On that occasion her split times were 14:56 for the 3km run, 56:43 for the 40km cycle, and 54:03 for the 10km run.

Amongst the male participants, Christopher du Plessis was Namibia’s top performing athlete.

Competing in the 45-49 year category, he came 106th out of 723 athletes, and 482 overall in a time of 2:09:58, which consisted of split times of 15:05 for the 3km run, 1:00:19 for the 40km cycle and 54:34 for the 10km run.

It was only his second race in the series though and the president of the Namibia Triathlon Federation, Pierre du Plooy said he could still improve a lot.

“Christopher did triathlons many years ago, but then stopped and only recently took up the sport again. He just ran his second race now so that’s a very promising performance,” he said.

Only five Namibian athletes participated in Virtual Racing 8 which was a big decrease from previous races where more than 20 participated at a time, but Du Plooy said that the long weekend was a contributing factor.

“A lot of athletes did not compete due to the long weekend. I know that Adele de la Rey, Mimi Hough and Max Schafer were all away, while Risa Dreyer is still recovering from an injury.

“Regarding Divan (du Plooy), we have concluded his participation in the series, because we are now in the final stages of preparation for the World Duathlon Championships, and the series interferes with his training programme,” he said.

The other three Namibian athletes who competed over the weekend were Richard Reid, who came 482nd out of 552 athletes in the men’s 50-54 year category in a time of 3:20:58; Marion Himmel who came 82nd out of 287 athletes in the women’s 50-54 year old category in a time of 2:44:11, and Berrit Graf who came 28th out of 38 athletes in the women’s 60-64 year category in a time of 3:07:31.

Du Plooy, meanwhile, said that international triathlon events would continue in August, albeit subject to new rules and regulations.

“I recently held a conference call with the International Triathlon Union and they confirmed that all international triathlon events will continue from mid-August, but they will now have to implement new measures which have to be accommodated due to Covid-19.

“For instance, they will have to adhere to social distancing; the groups at the start of races will be smaller; and cyclists will have to wear face masks, although that’s not necessary for running because thats not healthy. There are also new regulations for how to deal with water points; the race briefing will be held online in stead of having all the athletes crammed together in a room; and all the athletes will have regular temperature checks,” he said.

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