Johannesburg athletes Edwin Sesipi and GIvemore Mudzinganyama learnt a hard lesson at last year’s African X Trailrun, but did their homework and bounced back to win Saturday’s second stage over 33km between Kleinmond and Bot River in this year’s African X edition.
The two talented young athletes of Team ASICS Gauteng Boys, who cut their running teeth on the road before switching to trail, raced to victory in the first stage last year, but depleted themselves in the process and were helpless to counter the strong second stage attack by eventual race winners AJ Calitz and Ben Brimble.
“We learnt a good lesson then,” admitted Sesipi, “and we were determined not to repeat the mistake, so we held back a bit yesterday in the first stage (won by Ben Matiso and Reptsile Khotle of Team Edunova) and kept something back for today’s leg.
“We have been in the Cape for a few months, training with Nicholas Rupanga, who often had us running mountain trails in the area to prepare for the African X. So we were comfortable when it came to the first serious climb of the day, and that’s where we opened a gap on the others.”
Mudzinganyama and Sesipi hold a four-minute lead going into Sunday's 23km final leg, and look strong bets to take the title.
Two-hundred-and-fifty teams, many in fancy dress in support of the second day race tradition, enjoyed cooler weather and even some rain, a welcome respite from the searing heat of Friday’s leg, as they tracked a new second day route on the lower slopes of the Mt Hebron and Lebanon Nature Reserves, before ending the leg in the Wildekrans Wine Estate at Bot River.
The leading teams made a cautious start, staying in close formation for the first 5km along the edge of the Bot River Lagoon, before the race became serious as athletes began a long climb towards the Highlands Pass.
Matiso and Khotle stayed the pace, but the favoured Salomon Team of Kane Reilly and Thabang Madiba appeared to be struggling, slowly falling behind the leaders to eventually finish in fourth place.
There was no stopping the “Boys”, who increased their 30-second advantage at the second checkpoint at 12km into a five-minute overall margin at the finish and look unstoppable on the eve of the third and final leg on Sunday morning.
Sesipi and Mudzinganyama won in 2 hrs 16 min 28 sec, with strong-finishing Chris Strydom and Rory Scheffer narrowly failing to catch Matiso and Khotle in a dash for the runners-up berth.
Team Salomon Blondies, aka Landie Greyling and Meg Mackenzie, raced to a second successive victory in the women’s contest, although triathletes Claire Horner and Keelyn van Breda were less than two minutes behind at the finish after overhauling Lelanie Scheffer and Carla van Huyssteen in the final 5km.
Danette Smith and JC Visser sprung a surprise in the mixed team competition, running down first stage winners, AJ Calitz and Nicolette Griffioen at the final check point 6km from the finish, eventually winning by over two minutes in 2:38:54, but still lagging 15 minutes behind going into the final day.