Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lesotho has moved two steps up in the recently published world cycling rankings released by the International Cycling Union (ICU). This comes after Lesotho
displayed a very good performance in the 11th ACC (African Cycling Confederation) Mountain Bike African Championship that was held in Namibia from 11 to 13 April.
Prior to the race Lesotho was ranked position 38 but currently stands at position 36 behind Latvia and Slovenia respectively. At the championships Lesotho was represented by
Phetetso Monese, Eric Ramohanoe, Malefetsane Lesofe, Katleho Manasi, Paseka Makhebesela, Malefetsane Masokela, Tumelo Makae and Lichaba West. Overall,
the event saw the Mountain Kingdom securing fourth position in the men elite category. This was after Lesotho’s highest ranked rider Monese grabbed 11th position finishing behind seven South Africans,
two Namibians and a Mauritanian. The Lesotho’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Athletes Scholarship beneficiary Makae finished one step behind Monese after six laps.
In the under 23 men race, Lesotho finished second (overall) after South Africa owing to the hard work of Ramohanoe, who finished 10th behind nine South Africans.
This championship was the only qualifying event for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and only the winning nation in each of the men and women’s races secured a spot for Tokyo 2020.
Talking to Informative Sport, the team coach Sehaole Mpopo who is also the Federation of Lesotho Cycling (FLC) president, said even though they didn’t make it to the
podium, he is excited one of their missions was accomplished which is of improving on the world rankings. Since their performance at the championship couldn’t earn them a slot to the 2020 Tokyo
Olympic Games he said they have to attend other ranked events to collect points. “We now have to attend more UCI ranked events to increase our opportunities of qualifying for the Olympics,” said Mpopo.
A total of 88 cyclists took part in the event, with South Africa contributing the bulk with 46 participants. Therefore Mpopo said it was very challenging for them to compete against South Africa which has a large pool of riders while Lesotho had only eight men as riders.
