Keegan Cooke takes title despite crashing into car
IN his first EP Olympic distance championship race, Port Elizabeth teenager Keegan Cooke fought back bravely after crashing into the back of a car halfway through the cycle leg, to win the EP Triathlon Championship men’s title at the weekend.
Close on 100 triathletes contested the championship in superb conditions at Pollok Beach on Saturday morning, with top competitors vying for a place in the provincial team for the SA Championships in Bloemfontein in March.
Cooke, 19, came out of the 1.5km swim together with East London elite triathlete Clinton Gravett and took the lead during the first lap of the 40km cycle, only to see his dreams of a maiden win dashed when just past the 20km mark a car pulled in front of him and then stopped, resulting in Cooke crashing into the back of the vehicle.
Fortunately, he was able to recover without any serious injury or equipment damage but had lost valuable time.
It was only during the run leg that he managed to catch race leader Mauritz Erasmus to complete the 10km run to win in a time of 2hr 5min and 55 sec, just over a minute ahead of Erasmus, with Gravett placed third.
“I was feeling great after the swim and into the cycle and just couldn’t believe that the car would pull in front of me and then suddenly stop,” Cooke said.
“As it pulled in front of me I expected it to accelerate but it slowed down and I couldn’t avoid riding into the back of it, causing me to fall off the bike.
“While I scraped the left side of my body and started cramping badly, I thankfully didn’t damage the bike and could continue and was super stoked with my win,” the new EP Olympic distance champion, who recently successfully defended the About IT Triathlon Summer Series, said.
In the girls’ Olympic distance race, Julie Walker from George won comfortably in 2hrs 35min and 40secs, with Agnes Nieburg in second and Raquel Iverson in third.
Earlier, Dewald Klinkenburg won the EP sprint distance triathlon in a time of 1hr 12 minutes with George triathlete Reynard Janse van Rensburg in second place and Jason Collier in third place.
Kris-Mari Voges won the women’s sprint distance title from Susan Ferreira and Martelize Kruger.
In the youngsters’ super sprint race, Vojta Horak won in 37 minutes and 20 seconds with Francois de Villiers jnr in second place and Andrew Bosch in third.
The leading results were: Olympic Distance Men: 1 Keegan Cooke (2:05:55); 2 Mauritz Erasmus (2:06:59); 3 Clinton Gravett (2:08:16) Women: 1 Julie Walker (2:35:40); 2 Agnes Nieburg (2:52:52); 3 Racquel Iverson (2:53:09) Sprint Distance Men: 1 Dewald Klinkenburg (1:12:28); 2 Reynard Janse van Rensburg (1:12:35); 3 Jason Collier (1:19:48) Women: 1 Kris-Mari Voges (1:20:48); 2 Susan Ferreira (1:23:12); 3 Martelize Kruger (1:25:00) Super Sprint Distance: 1 Vojta Horak (37:20); 2 Francois de Villiers Jnr. (41:54); 3 Andrew Bosch (42:59)
I thankfully didn't damage the bike and could continue and was super stoked with my win