Astrophysicist stars in his first attempt at ultra-distance racing
AUSTRIAN-BORN Amadeus Witzemann made light of a fractured rib and some of the toughest terrain in trail running and raced to a memorable debut victory at the Cederberg Traverse 100 km over the weekend, breaking the tape at the Sanddrift finish in 14 hours 59 minutes 55 seconds.
Anlize Enslin capitalised on first leg leader, Tatum Prins, suffering illness and Czech-born Jana Ball’s navigational challenges to clinch top prize in the women’s competition of R5 000 and a generous collection of Cederberg Wines, finishing shortly after 4 am on Sunday morning in 21:27:30.
Witzemann, a 27 year old UWC PhD researcher in astrophysics, who had never raced beyond 55 km, ran a well judged race in testing cold conditions, crossing the line two hours before midnight on Saturday.
“I think perhaps I’m better suited to the longer distance,” admitted Witzemann. “I really enjoyed the race in incredible landscapes and will be looking out for another next year.”
Witzemann was on the receiving end of an accidental kick to the ribs during a self defence training session three weeks ago, but made light of the impediment.
“It only hurt for the first 20 km and prevented me from running too fast on the downhills.
“In hindsight that was probably a good thing!
Having taken the lead from race favourite, Rob Rorich 42 km into the race, Witzemann ran solo for the remaining 58 km.
“I found it quite lonely on the second leg after Algeria.
“It was hard not knowing who was behind me and I became a bit paranoid as it became darker.
“I saw a pink splash of colour behind me and thought it was Robbie (Rorich).
“I didn’t know he had earlier dropped out at Algeria. So I ended up running faster in the final stages than I would have preferred!”
The strong- running triathlete, Gabriel Kriel, dropped back after leading in the early stages but recovered to finish strongly and take second place pace.
“I made a decision to race South Africa’s toughest trail races in a calendar year,” explained Kriel.
“I thought I would start with an easier one at Cederberg, but I misjudged completely . That was seriously tough!”
Experiences trail athlete Kevin Spratley made a serious navigational error which cost him the race in the 42 km Cederberg Night Run, surrendering a substantial lead just 10 km from the finish, allowing the talented female duo of Alana Doyle and Dunya Ansems the honour of crossing the line in first place.