Provincial biathlon team bags 18 medals

The Eastern Province Biathlon team scooped an impressive 18 medals at the Highgate interprovincial championships at the weekend.

They racked up five gold, three silver and 10 bronze medals in the Oudtshoorn event despite facing stiff competition from six other provinces.

EP Biathlon team manager Arno Vosloo said despite the hot weather during the morning’s running events and some showers during the swimming, athletes fared well to come home in podium positions.

“In the end, it was a quite a successful day for most of the athletes.”

Vosloo said regions such as Western Province and Boland had large contingents, resulting in the former grabbing top honours in the team competition, followed by Boland in second, with Eden and EP ending in third and fourth respectively.

Vosloo said the aim of most of the EP athletes was to post good times, including personal bests and qualifying times, as they look ahead to the provincial and national championships to be held in Port Elizabeth in the coming months.

With both championships taking place in the Bay, Vosloo said this was the perfect opportunity for athletes to put up good performances in front of their home crowd.

“Competing on home soil only adds to the motivation for athletes to make the team because sometimes they qualify for national championships but cannot afford to go because of financial constraints.”