Kotze and De La Rey swoops Sandman away

Sunday 3 December 2017 saw the 31st year of the Swakopmund triathlon, now officially know as FNB Sandman, hosted by OTB Sport.

More than 300 athletes lined up to take on the gruelling challenge of swimming, cycling and running. Among Namibia's great triathletes were Tyrone Kotze, Herbert Peters, Danie Joubert and some of the older veterans, Stefan Van Doorn and Paul Brinkmann.

There were also athletes from Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa and Germany. The last few years the Sandman has been well supported by the Zimbabweans who make up a sizeable component of the Ultra Distance.

The first event for the day was the Ultra Distance event comprising a 1.9 km swim, 90 km bike and 21.1 km run. Phillip (The Rocket) Seidler created an early and impressive lead. Spectators enjoyed watching the swimmers as well as the dolphins that darted around them.

Seidler was out of the water first in the 1.9 km sea-swim in a record time of 22 minutes 57 seconds. His team mate and former Namibian triathlon record holder, Drikus Coetzee, smashed all previous cycling course records by completing the 90 km windy course in 2 hours 14 minutes.

Together with Erich Goeieman, who did the 21 km run in 1h 11 m, they completed the course in a record breaking 3h 48 m. Unless this trio comes together again in following years, it is very likely that this record will remain unbroken for many years to come.

Tyrone Kotze, a well-known surfer from Swakopmund, had his first Ultra Distance win, completing the 1.9 km swim, 90 km bike ride and 21.1 km run in a time of 4h 41 m. In second place was Danie Joubert and in third place was South African athlete Selaotswe (Quincy) Tlhakuli.

In the female division, Adele De La Rey again showed all and sundry that she is Namibia's ruling female triathlete, completing the course in 5h 26 m. She was followed by Benita Kasch (5h 32 m) and Heidi Burmeister-Nel (5h 41 m).

Of the male veterans, Ralph Schick from Germany was first past the finish line in 5h 19 m, with Dave Gardner (Zimbabwe) in second place and Roual Spangenberg in third. The Master Division was dominated by non-Namibians, with South African Neil Clark and Zach Benade taking first and second place and Alex Kirkman from Zimbabwe in third.

In the Standard division which comprises a 1.1 km swim, 40 km bike and 10 km run, Sebastian Pahl came out on top in a time of 2h 06m with Herbert Peters in second and Luke Brinkmann in third place. In the vet category the Brinkmann brothers had a clean sweep: Paul taking first place, Peter second and Mark third. They also came in 2nd, 4th and 5th in overall positioning. The masters was won by Jean Marais in 2h 22 m followed by Roelof Pahl in 2h 31 m and Richard Tietz taking third place.

In the female category, scholar Tanya Mackensen had her first standard distance win, with Megan le Roux in second and Stephanie Mohrmann in third. Of the vets Ellois Ellis was first, Charmaine Shannon second and Almut Dieckhoff third. Antje Tietz won the Masters with Mimi Linde in second and Berrit Graf in third.

There was also a male and female Sprint category , won by Schalk van Der Merwe and Mariska Grobbelaar.

The sprint event also saw the largest contingent of under 15's taking part, with 20 youngsters gracing the start line. The fastest of the youngsters in the male category was Luke Steffens followed by Maximillian Betts and in third James de Jager. In the girls division it was Corinna Weimann who took top position followed by Annika Rohloff.

There was also a mini division for children between ages 6 and 10 years and older people who are venturing into the sport. The girls’ division was won by Laura Weimann and the boys’ division by Mati Laporte.