Christie Hearder left the Hilton Bush Lodge in Pietermaritzburg on Saturday with the biggest cheque for any mountain bike series in the country after being confirmed as the winner of the season-long Quattro ROAG Series powered by Momentum.
Joining Hearder as a big winner at the official series’ awards dinner was Sarah Gray who claimed the honour as the top female athlete in the associated trail running series.
The mountain biking and trail running series are year-long Grand Prix-style competitions which took place in conjunction with ten of KZN’s top one-day mountain bike and trail running events. The series ran from February through to September with riders earning points according to finishing positions at each event. The best six results counted toward final finishing positions.
Top winner, Hearder, ended the season with a perfect score of 600 points after winning six of the series events during the season, picked up a cheque for R25 000 for her efforts.
Hearder started with wins in Wartburg and Kamberg, before adding victories at Sugar Rush and Drak Gardens, but then needed to win the final two events of the season, the Tour de Krantz and Safire Baynesfield, to wrap up her perfect score. Hearder also finished second at Scottburgh and the Illovo Eston.
Gray ended the year on 572 points and received R5 000 and faced much stiffer competition to claim her victory. Gray ended up with a deceptively large victory but only confirmed her title at the penultimate event of the year, the Tour de Kranz. Nokukhanya Memela (498) and Apiwe Gaga (496) were second and third in an incredibly tight battle for the runner-up spot.
Guest speaker at the function was sports psychologist Dr Kirsten van Heerden. Van Heerden is one of only a handful of people to have represented South Africa as an athlete and then use that knowledge in conjunction with her PhD in sports psychology to help Olympians, world champions and South African sports teams achieve their goals.
The Quattro ROAG Series powered by Momentum is organised and administered by the Race Organisers Admin Group (ROAG) which is one of South Africa’s biggest entry and event administration systems for participation sports.
Photo 1 Caption: ROAG Series winner Christie-Leigh Hearder claimed a perfect 600-point score and claimed top honours at the Quattro ROAG Series Powered by Momentum Event awards dinner. Photo: @Cycling_SA on Twitter
With editing by gsport
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