On Sunday Gauteng saw the 3rd Race of the Summer Trail Series® take place at B’Sorah tented camp. After a scorcher of a series so far, the cloudy skies and cooler weather was warmly, or should I rather say “cool-ly” welcomed by all.
Racing kicked off at 7am with Batch ‘A’ runners in the Long Course. B’Sorah being the kindest of all 4 races in terms of elevation, meant runners quickly found their way back to the finish line.
Mike Bailey absolutely dominated the men’s long course Championship race, coming in almost 5min ahead of second place in a time of 47:59. Officially laying down his dominance as Open Male Champion of the Long Course championship having claimed his 3rd win of the series. Brian Garnder took second in a time of 52:42 and in 3rd place over the line in the men’s race was Sean Fietjie in an impressive time of 55:54.
Unfortunately for Sean another runner, Beyers Rossouw’s, information was incorrectly entered due to finger trouble while entering on the day, placing him in the wrong Batch making Beyer’s appear as 3rd place overall and in the men’s Open category. So during prize giving unfortunately for Beyers as well, he was incorrectly called up to the podium for a short lived podium moment.
In the ladies race Magretha Wang also assured her position as Open Female Series Champion after racing across the finish line in a time of 56:35. Although it wasn’t a sprint across the finish line against another female for her to claim 1st place, it seems there was some great friendly racing going on between Sean Fietjie, Deon Ollewagen and Margretha as they all sprinted across the line together with some friendly banter going on between them across the finish line. So great to see the camaraderie amongst the runners. And really awesome to see how Magretha Wang has been leading this series.
In second place in the ladies race was Rentia Greyvenstein in a time of 1:04:37 and coming in 3rd place hot on Rentia’s heels was Lana Dyer in a time of 1:04:47.
Moving across to the men’s short race, coming in a comfortable first place was Ryno van-Wollenhoven, with a big enough lead to run right past the finish line, turn around, come back and still secure his win. After winning race 1 & 2 Luke Schlebush had to take a step down this weekend, coming in second place in a time of 26:46, and another newbie to the podium this weekend was 3rd place runner Lorne Schnugh in a time of 29:00.
In the ladies short course race Anita O’brien out classed all her fellow females by maneuvering her way around this windy course at a rapid pace in a time of 31:49. Also no stranger to the podium at the Spur Trail Series® was Phyllis de Fouw who claimed 2nd place in a time of 34:59 and 3rd female, also the first junior across the line was Caryn Phipson in a time of 37:20.
Was great to see such awesome racing on display this weekend and to see so many families and friends having a great time out on the beautiful trails of B’Sorah.
The Gauteng Summer Series will be taking a break for 2 weekends, so enjoy stretching out those stiff legs and sneaking in a few extra training sessions. Maybe throw in a few hill repeats to tackle the climbs at our last race of the Spur Gauteng Summer Trail Series® and also the last race for 2016 at the stunning trails of Leeuwenkloof. Runners are in for an absolute treat.
A big thank you and shout out to our sponsors and media partners Spur Steak Ranches, BOS Sport, Protea Hotels by Marriot, Runnersworld.co.za and WWF