The 5km ‘Comrades’ challenge
Paralysed man ignores limitations and vows to take on East Coast Radio Big Walk
ONGEZO Mini, 16, from Kwadabeka is one of the few female pump track riders in the country and she’s already making her mark, having been placed third in the women’s race at the Red Bull Track World Championship qualifier in Lesotho recently.
The next world championship qualifying race is set to be held in Durban on July14, and Mini said she had been practising and would be ready for the race.
The latest form of cycle racing and riding, pump track riding is a cross between BMX and mountain bike racing, where the rider has to navigate a pump track made up of rollers, turns and jumps that have to be completed without any pedalling or pushing.
The riders are required to “pump”, which means they have to create momentum and gain speed by using up and down body movements.
According to Mini, who finished the Lesotho qualifier circuit in a time of 23 seconds, it’s a fast sport that requires strength, fitness and agility. The male winner at the last qualifier finished in 19.2 seconds.
She started riding a bicycle when she was in Grade 3.
“It was a friend’s bike, and since then I’ve loved cycling. In 2017 I joined the Go!Durban Cycle Academy and have learned all the different techniques. You basically have to roll on to the track and let the momentum of the bike and track take you with it. It’s not difficult, I love racing,” she said.
Mini, who goes to the cycle academy in Kwadabeka every day except Sundays, added her trip as a member of the Velosolutions Izimbali female team to her first world championship qualifier in Lesotho was an experience she would never forget.
“I couldn’t wait to arrive. In Lesotho, I learned about their culture and how they use donkeys and horses for transport. I also saw their beautiful mountains and learned about climate change.
“My favourite part of the trip was spending time with my team and making new friends,” she said.
The spokesperson for Go!Durban Cycle Academy, Tennille Taylor, said the team members who travelled to the world championship qualifier were “challenged to adapt to a new environment beyond their comfort zones”.
She said there were pump track sites in Kwadabeka, KwaMashu and Inanda, and a new track was being built in Chesterville.
As well as having coaches to teach the children how to ride the pump tracks, there are extra academic lessons on a Saturday morning, especially in maths.
“After lessons, the kids can go and ride. There’s an increase in the number of riders coming through, and it’s safe because it’s a controlled area.
“We have about 40 children enrolled at the academic sites. We don’t want to only nurture their cycle skills, but also to help them pass at school, that’s really important,” said Taylor. CLIMBING Moses Mabhida Stadium might seem a tougher feat than walking 5km along the promenade.
But the opposite is the case for Mark Charlesworth, who has been paralysed since his neck was snapped in three places in a car crash.
He climbed the arch of the iconic stadium in 2012 with the help of a mobile handrail after a friend annoyed him with a comment that he wouldn’t be able to do it.
The structure will be in his sights next month when he takes part in the 5km Discovery East Coast Radio Big Walk, a challenge he expects to complete in five to seven hours, with the help of a walker.
“The walk will be more challenging than the arch. The stadium was steep but I have a fair bit of arm power. I don’t have leg power,” he said this week on a visit to the promenade at South Beach, where the walk will start.
He is also vulnerable in the heat, and his blood pressure can spike easily. “And I can fall over easily,” he said. Charlesworth, 53, has been training six hours a day, walking laps in an indoor track.
“It’s the equivalent of training for the Comrades Marathon. It’s going to be one hell of a walk,” he said.
Charlesworth puts his achievements down to his stubbornness and his refusal to believe that he is paralysed.
“I have carried on with my job, buying and selling Porsches and their spares. I am lucky, because all I need for that is my hands and my mouth, not like people who are mechanics or jockeys.
“My girlfriend at the time of my accident married me afterwards and is now my wife, Tarryn.
“And I still live in the house we had just built in Assegai. The only change we had to make was to take the door off the shower.”
He stressed that it was important to focus on how lucky one was.
“Be grateful for what you’ve got,” he said.
Charlesworth hopes that his taking part in the May 19 walk will make other disabled people feel comfortable about participating.
His car crash happened back in 2014 when the car he was driving, alone, hit a wet patch in the road in the Waterfall area and flipped backwards.
He wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. After two operations, Charlesworth has never given up.
“Doctors often say that after two years you’ve got what you’ve got.”
His physiotherapist, Mary Rudd, believes she and Charlesworth have disproved that, as he has made small strides, like being able to lift his left foot.
Charlesworth will walk to raise funds for a handful of charities: the QuadPara Association of SA; the Chris Burger Petro Jackson Players’ Fund, for rugby players with spinal injuries; St Giles Association for the Handicapped; Voluntary Emergency Medical Assistance, the organisation that rescued him after his accident; and the Highway Hospice. Charlesworth wants to help the hospice after having also survived lymphatic cancer.
For further information, email him at mark@550steps.co.za