I had a good day today, says the high-flying Linda Zondi

LOCAL athletes Linda Zondi and Carla van Huyssteen are the frontrunners following the first day over 32km of the Three Cranes Trail Race in the Karkloof Valley in the KZN Midlands yesterday.

The event is the first of the Old Mutual Wild Series of trail running and mountain bike events, incorporating the Mont-Aux-Source 50km in the Drakensberg and the Golden Gate 110km later in the year. The Wild Series is closely aligned to the Two Oceans Marathon and Trail Races in Cape Town at Easter.

Part time Pietermartizburg gardener and would be professional athlete, Zondi, gave potential sponsors a wake-up call with his emphatic pillar to post victory yesterday, crossing the finish line at Bushwillow in 2:22.15 – five minutes clear of Mthobisi Mzolo.

“I had a good day today,” remarked the 27-year-old Zondi. “My aim was to improve on my performance at the Golden Gate last year, where I finished second. I broke away after about 3km and stayed ahead of my rivals for the remainder of the race.”

Hilton-based physiotherapy, Van Huyssteen, has been one of the country’s leading triathletes and trail ath- letes in the past decade.

“Sometimes it’s tough racing after a long working week and I felt quite tired leading up to the race,” admitted Van Huyssteen. “But the route is fantastic, especially inside the forest, and I soon felt stronger. It was hot out there, but the strong wind made it a bit cooler.” Van Huyssteen clocked 2 hrs 54 min 12 sec to finish in ninth place overall, ten minutes clear of closest rival, Puseletso Dladla.

A feature of the first leg was a compulsory stop at the canopy zipline after 26km. Athletes could check in and out and enjoy canopy top zipline action without losing running time.

“I took a break of about 20 minutes and rode two of the zip-lines,” said Van Huyssteen. “In hindsight, I would have like to do a few more!”