The African XCO Champs took place on the 25th of January at the Slammer XC track in Durbanville. Steven Smuts of Snapsport Photography was there to capture the action.
Local girl Mariske Strauss, claimed her first Elite title after stepping up from under 23 on the first of January. In the men’s Elite race, Pretoria’s, Philip Buys continued to stake his claim as the country’s top XCO performer with a victory over Lourens Luus by a mere five seconds.
The under 23 ladies title was won convincingly by Candice Neethling, with James Reid winning the under 23 men’s race. In the Junior division Bianca Haw claimed the Junior Ladies African Champion’s title and Stephan Senekal claimed the Junior Men’s title in an impressive time of 1 hour 15 minutes and 56 seconds for his six laps of the course.
In the Sub-Vets categories Full Sus’s Coaching columnist Mike Posthumus came in sixth and the ever competitive Kate Slegrova came in third. For all the results visit the Cycling South Africa website at www.cyclingsa.com.
Steven Smuts is an avid sportsman and loves photography, so he decided to combine the two. He aims to capture the emotion and facial expressions of athletes as they dive in to score that match winning try, cross the finish line or wipe out off their bikes. He’s always looking for that “once in a lifetime” shot that’ll never be replicated. Find him on Facebook at Snapsport Photography.
