Leading South African multi-sport athlete Hanlie Booysens kicked the year off with a bang on Saturday, 12 January when she raced to victory at the 7th annual Totalsports Challenge Kleinmond, presented by New Balance and Powerade.
This awesome event featured seven different disciplines, and kicked off with a 12km surf ski and 1.5km swim in picture-perfect Gordon’s Bay, followed by a 50km road bike along the scenic coastal road to Kleinmond. Once in Kleinmond, athletes had to tackle a 13km road run, 13km K1 canoe paddle, 25km mountain bike route and finally a 9km beach run awaited them.
First place in the individual women’s category went to Hanlie Booyens, who admitted to a terrible surf ski leg. "I managed to fall out of the boat three times on the surf ski leg, exiting the water right at the back of the pack," exclaimed Booysens.
"I knew that I’d have to race hard on the road and mountain bike legs in order to catch Jeannette Walder. Nonetheless I had an amazing race and just love this event, it’s awesome! I’ve now bought my own surf ski and will definitely be paddling more in future," says Booyens, who completed the race in 8 hours, 12minutes and 37 seconds.
Jeannete Walder finished second seven minutes back, while Tatum Prins was third across the line in a race which missed defending champion Jeannie Bomford, who was unable to participate due to a car accident two weeks prior to the event.
Team KMA came first in the women’s pairs category, with team Dawid and Nikki Mocke finishing 1st in the mixed pairs category, team Rude Awakenings taking honours in the women’s 3-member team category, and team Eugene and Pauline taking the honours in the mixed 3-member team category.
Team, while Totalsports Pro Ladies overcame strong competition to finish 1st in the women’s 7-member team category of the Totalsports Challenge, with team Harmony Mixed finishing first in the mixed 7-member team category.
Athletes can now look forward to the first leg of the 2008/2009 series, the Totalsports Challenge Sun City presented by New Balance and Powerade taking place in October this year.
For race rules or further information visit the Totalsports or new balance websites, contact Top Events on 021-511 7130, or e-mail [email protected].
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