South Africa dominates individual time trial

SOUTH Africa dominated the individual time trial at the African Cycling Championships on Friday, winning all three titles on offer.

Jay Thompson won the gold medal in the Elite Men’s category, completing the 30,4-km event in a time of 38 minutes 28 seconds, at an average sped of 47,41 km/h.Compatriot Reinardt Janse van Rensburg came second in 38:42, while Namibia’s Erik Hoffmann won the bronze medal in a time of 39:14.Yannick Lincoln of Mauritius came fourth in 40:14 and Saadoune Abdelati of Morocco fifth in 41:09.Namibia’s 19-year-old cyclist Heiko Redecker gave a great performance to finish sixth overall in 41:19, while another Namibian, Jacques Celliers came seventh in a time of 41:32.A total of 29 cyclists from 14 countries completed the individual time trial.Reinardt Janse van Rensburg of South Africa (38:42) won the gold medal in the men’s U23 category a an average sped of 47.14 km/h.Namibia’s Heiko Redecker (41:19) won the silver medal while Adrien Niyonshuti of Rwanda (42:31) caused a major surprise by winning the bronze medal. It was the first time that Rwanda had ever won a medal at the African Cycling Championships.Obert Chembe of Zambia (42:50) came fourth and Ahmed Youcef of Libya (43:00) fifth.Twelve cyclists from 10 African nations completed the Men’s U23 individual time trial.Cashandra Slingerland of South Africa won the gold medal in the women’s individual time trial, completing the 20,4-km event in a time of 29:32, at an average speed of 41,45 km/h.Another South African cyclist, Lynette Burger came second in 30:30, while Aurelie Halbwachs of Mauritius won the bronze medal in a time of 30:55.Linda Davidson of Zimbabwe came fourth in 31:42 while Carmen Bassingthwaighte of Namibia came fifth in 37:34.South Africa led the medal standings with six medals ahead of yesterday’s races, followed by Namibia with three medals. Libya, Rwanda and Mauritius have each won one medal so far.The African Cycling Championships concluded with the men’s and women’s road races yesterday morning.- www.namibiasport.com.na