Miller, Du Plessis win XCO Championship race

This year’s edition of the two-day Nedbank Cross Country Olympic (XCO) Namibian National Championships races, which took place over the Easter weekend on 7 and 8 April in Swakopmund, was a sweeping success.

In the elite men’s division, Alex Miller took first place with a time of 01:23:41.

He was followed by Hugo Hahn (01:27:29) and Xavier Papo (01:37:29), who finished in third place. Monique Du Plessis (01:26:09) won first place in the women’s division. She was followed by Nicola Fester (01:30:58) and Zaren Knight (01:32:45), who finished in third place.



Tough work

Miller, the winner of the elite men's category, described the race as tough.

"The first lap was all about observing the pace. After the second lap, I started feeling a bit confident and decided to up the pace. When I saw that I was in the lead, that’s when I decided to keep it steady from there".

Monique Du Plessis, winner of the elite women's category, said she had a "fast" race.

"I took a risk at the start of the race and went all out. I am just glad it worked in my favour."

She encouraged upcoming cyclists to "just ride and have fun. Do not put too much pressure on yourself. Just enjoy it".



Tiring, but fun

The winner of the sprog boys (u/12) category, Micah Chase (12), said the first lap was "pretty tough" at the start.

"The wind also played a bigger factor on the long uphill stretch, but I really enjoyed the jump section".

The winner of the sub-junior girls (u-14), Nicole Suren, said it was a tough experience.

"The first lap was a bit difficult because we started off really fast. Eventually, I did get my rhythm. The last lap was tiring, but overall I had an awesome time".



New category

The championship, which saw over 90 cyclists in action, also introduced the new e-bike race category and the XCC-short track category for elite cyclists, which is a race similar to XCO racing except with laps typically under one kilometre and in less technical terrain.

Andre Steinfurth won the first-ever men’s e-bike Union Cycliste International (UCI) race, while Elvira Dickerson won the first-ever women’s e-bike UCI race on Friday.

Miller won first place in the short course elite men’s XCO UCI national race.

Monique Du Plessis took first place in the short course elite women’s XCO UCI division. The winners were presented with the Namibian National XCO cycling jersey to represent the country in international competitions.'

The cyclists who took part in the elite under-23 and junior races competed for UCI points, which are an internationally recognised points system for boosting each cyclist’s world ranking that determines placement in international events such as the Olympics.



Other results

In the u/23 men's category, JG van der Westhuizen (01:39:36) won first place and was followed by Marco Augustyn (01:31:41), who finished second. Micah Chase (22:33) took first place in the Sprog Boys (u/12).

He was followed by Christo Nell (26:48) in second place and Max Heigan (27:36), who finished third. Qara Volschenk (19:27) won first place in the female division and was followed by Carl van der Westhuizen (19:36).

In the sub-junior boys (u/14), Julius Braun (50:11) won first place. He was followed by Daniel Hennes (52:38) and Janro Greeff (53:43). Nicole Suren (25:07) clinched first place in the female division and was followed by Bianca Nell (26:25) and Anne Cramer (27:11), who won third place.

Kevin Lowe emerged victorious in the junior men’s division, and Eden Spangenberg took first place in the junior women’s division. Greg Chase (47:33) won first place in the masters men’s division.

He was followed by Nick Du Plessis (48:48) and Hans Du Toit (49:30), who took third place.

Christiane Beulker (57:32) won first place in the master women’s division. She was followed by Elanor Grassow (01:00:47) who clinched second place. Fanie Steenkamp (01:05:59) won the veteran men’s category, while Anna-Mart Kruger (59:21) won the veteran women’s division.



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