Sunday 10 August saw the third and final round of the Gauteng leg of the Inter School Eliminator Series hosted by King David High School, Linksfield take place. After seeing the course designed by Northern Farm the previous week, the Headmaster of King David said we needed to spice up the proposed course and allowed us to reroute down the stairs and through the school hall. This change was met with two sets of emotions: shock and horror from the parents and excitement from the riders. The course in general was very fast with plenty of overtaking opportunities, but riders were slowed down by a hairpin turn almost stopping all momentum directly before a climb to test who had the power to push through to the finish line.
There were a large number of boisterous spectators made up of friends and family members who descended on the school to support the final round – some traveling from as far as Potchefstroom. The riders gave the spectators plenty to scream and cheer about as they raced wheel to wheel around the course trading positions numerous times, with many races coming down to a sprint finish for the line! The overall standings were displayed for everyone to see and quickly the calculations began between riders and parents as to who needed to finish where in order to move up the rankings.
The under 14 boys just couldn’t find an answer to the speed and power of Jean Pierre Lloyd (Hoérskool Zwartkop) who once again dominated the field to take top honours ahead of a hard chasing Andrew Hall (Pretoria Boys High School) and Nathan Badenhorst (President Steyn) who rounded off the podium respectively.
In the under 16 boys, Agostinho Correia (Brits) flew around the course and was looking to unsettle the confident CJ Van Eyk (Hoérskool Zwartkop) but around the final corner CJ kicked a gear and pulled a bike length away to take yet another victory ahead of an ecstatic Agostinho and Jared Cowan (Sutherland High School) jumping up a step from last week to finish in third position.
Every heat of the under 19 boys looked like it could have been the final, the dust from the initial acceleration at the start had barely settled when the boys had come around the course and into the finish sprint. Hugh Webb (Hoérskool Zwartkop) and Johan Hartzenberg (Hoérskool Hartbeespoort) were in a battle of their own for the top step with Hugh taking the win from Johan by the narrowest of margins in the final sprint. Johannes Masetla (Diepsloot MTB Academy) bettered his fourth place from the previous week to finish third.
The girls raced three rounds in their respective age groups and the results were averaged out to decide a winner. In all the age groups racing was tough with close elbow to elbow racing and many of the rounds producing different results leaving the winners unclear until prizes giving. The under 14 girls was won by Andrea De Waal (Mountain Cambridge School) who pulled a lead on a chasing Kaylin Prinsloo (Hoérskool Hartbeespoort) and Danielle Muller (Hoérskool Hartbeespoort) who finished second and third respectively.
The under 16 girls was an all-out battle between Zama Kunene (Diepsloot MTB Academy) and Phutuma Nyaka (Diepsloot MTB Academy) with Kelsi Chomse (Fourways High School) adding to the action. In the end, it was Zama narrowly edging out Phutuma by one point reversing the podium order from the previous week with Kelsi finishing in third.
In the final heat of under 19 girls, Lebo Pebane (Diepsloot MTB Academy) finally found a solution to halt Chanté Fourie’s (Hoér Volkies Potch) dominant performances, but too little too late as Chanté edged out Lebo into second in the average points with Zoné Knoetze (Ferdinand Postma) completing the podium in third.
The finalists were once again showered in prizes with the first place hamper being valued at R4000. We received incredible support from our awesome sponsors: Catlike Helmets, Enjoy Fitness, Fox Racing, Skullcandy, OGIO, World of Heroes and Rockets. There were also vouchers from local bike shops VeloLife and RADCycles.
Follow @One_Move_Ment on Twitter for updates on the 2015 School’s Eliminator series calendar notifications and to find out where their next pump track or XCE race will take place.
