Slater keeps up pace on beach

RIVER Mile winner Slater Black continued his fine form with a win at the City Lodge Hotels Group 3 Beaches Challenge held in Port Elizabeth on Sunday morning.

The race sees individuals and teams racing between Pollok Beach and Kings Beach, with change-overs on each of the beaches in between, before running back along the beachfront promenade to finish back at Pollok Beach.

Black, 16, of Pearson High, completed the event in one hour and three minutes, ahead of Gary Johnson and Graeme Renard.

Amica de Jager won the women’s race in one hour, four minutes and 23 seconds from Liza Kingston, with older sister Chane de Jager in third.

First across the line was veteran surf-lifesaver Rob Smith, the only contestant in the Lifesaving Ironman category which involved a Malibu board paddle from Pollok Beach to Hobie Beach, swim to Humewood Beach and then a surfski paddle to Kings Beach before the 3.5km run back.

The popular teams category involved duo teams and quad teams.

The duo team comprised a swimmer who completed all three swim legs and a runner, while the quad teams had three swimmers and one runner and was very popular among families.

The two Josh Tuckers from Grey High teamed up in the T-Squared team and won the duo team honours in a time of 58 minutes 58 seconds, with the Blu_Smooth team of Kevin Richards and Cindy Jansen van Rensburg in second place (1:00:24) and Team Edge (Mark Edge and Nicholas Graeme) in third (1:04:43).

The young Kings Beach Nippers quad team of Dane Archibald, Hilton Lindhorst, Siphosethu Nomoyi and Tristan van Rooyen did well to win the quad team category in a time of one hour 13 minutes and five seconds, ahead of the Loftus Family (Howard, Nina, Callum and Zara) with team RSI (Shirley Nelson, Willem Rademeyer, Lea Steyn and Liza Steyn) finishing third.

The morning also saw some stand-up paddlers taking part in the rough conditions with Alex and Channae Erens teaming up to finish in a time of 57 minutes and 36 seconds.