Biathle, triathle team scoop medals galore
FOURTEEN athletes from Nelson Mandela Bay were selected to represent South Africa at the prestigious Biathle and Triathle World Champs held in Sarasota, in the US state of Florida, recently.
The athletes, who are under the Nelson Mandela Bay Modern Pentathlon Association (NMBMPA) banner, came home with nine medals.
The team comprised Alexander and Anke Serfontein, Ruan and Ludgen le Roux, Arno van Heerden, Keira and Keegan van Heerden, Bella and Jayson Archibald, Clinton Eales, Gareth Vorster, Andrew McCallum, Shannon Scholtz and Channah du Plessis.
Association chairman Shaun Richter said: “The NMBMPA is extremely proud of these athletes.
“The sport takes hours of training and commitment from both the athletes and their parents,” he said.
“We will be working closely with the athletes and their parents to ensure that [they] are in a position to do even better next year.”
On the first day, in the triathle individual and team races, Keira was one of the top achievers, racking up a bronze medal on the individual race and taking gold in the team event.
Anke went one better by also securing a gold in the team event and a silver in the individual event.
Day two saw the championship move on to biathle races.
This time Channah and Arno brought in the silver medals.
NMBMPA also kicked off their new season at Theodor Herzl recently with 37 new athletes trying biathle for the first time.
“All reports were positive and most indicated that they would try it again, Richter said.
“Nelson Mandela Bay is sporting talent.
“We look forward to welcoming more talented athletes into our sport who can hopefully also work towards representing South Africa at the World Champs next year.” full of