On Saturday, 30 September, the Western Cape’s largest multi-sport festival, the Freshpak Fitness Festival, attracted over 600 novice and professional athletes, all ready to put their speed and endurance to the test in various events, including open water swims, a duathlon, biathlon and triathlon.
The day started off with the 1.5km or 3km swim in the Clanwilliam Dam. The swim was followed by the duathlon (5km run/20km cycle/2.5km run) and biathlon (5km run/20km cycle), testing the athletes through the varied and challenging terrain.
The main event of the day, with participants travelling nationally to compete, was a sprint triathlon comprising of an 800m swim, 20km cycle and 5km run. Racing through the nearly 200-year-old town, top Jeep Team triathlete, Michael Lord, put on an impressive performance to finish 2nd in a time of 01:06:51, just under 3 minutes behind race winner, Nick Quenet. Third place in the men’s race went to Rohan Meyer in 01:08:15.
In the women’s race, first place went to Siobhan Wall in 01:12:04, finishing in second was Linda Detering in 01:21:06, and rounding off the podium was Michelle Krebs in 01:21:26.
“I finished second in the Freshpak Fitness Festival Triathlon behind a flying Nick Quenet. I’m chuffed with the result, but it was a bit of a wakeup call – I must train more! A big thank you to Terry at Argon 18 South Africa for the bike and to the organisers for another awesome event – this is still my favourite road triathlon,” said Lord.
Results
Men
- Nick Quenet 01:04:04
- Michael Lord 01:06:51
- Rohan Meyer 01:08:15
Women
- Siobhan Wall 01:12:04
- Linda Detering 01:21:06
- Michelle Krebs 01:21:26
