{"id":17360,"date":"2022-04-20T17:05:46","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T17:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/namibia-gears-up-for-african-mtb-champs"},"modified":"2022-04-20T17:11:32","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T17:11:32","slug":"namibia-gears-up-for-african-mtb-champs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/namibia-gears-up-for-african-mtb-champs","title":{"rendered":"Namibia gears up for African MTB champs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>AFRICA’S top mountain bike riders will battle it out for continental honours at the African Mountain Bike Championships which take place at the IJG Trails at Farm Windhoek on Saturday.<\/b><\/p>\n

More than 100 cyclists from about 10 African countries will compete in the Cross Country Olympic (XCO) discipline, in the Elite, u23 and Junior categories, under the auspices of the Confederation of African Cycling (CAC) and the International Cycling Federation (UCI), while several other local junior categories will bring the total number of participants to about 250.<\/p>\n

To date, cyclists from South Africa, Mauritius, Tunisia, Kenya, Morocco, Lesotho and Botswana have confirmed their participation, but with entries still open, the NCF expects up to 10 nations to compete.<\/p>\n

In the Elite Men’s category, South Africa’s top-ranked rider, Alan Hatherly has confirmed his participation and will start as a firm favourite.<\/p>\n

He has dominated MTB racing in South Africa and Africa in recent years, having won the SA championships from 2017 to 2021, and the African XCO Championships from 2017 to 2019.<\/p>\n

In 2018 he won the u23 title at the UCI XCO World Championships, as well as the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games at the Gold Coast, and last year he came eighth at the Tokyo Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

He is now ranked sixth in the world and is currently in great form, having won the Cross Country Short Track race at the UCI MTB World Cup in Petropolis, Brazil two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Hatherly can, however, expect strong competition from several compatriots who have confirmed their participation.<\/p>\n

They include the current SA champion Arno du Toit, the former champion Phillip Buys, and Mathys Beukes, who will all be battling it out to make the SA Commonwealth Games team.<\/p>\n

Namibia’s hopes will lie with Alex Miller in the Men’s u23 category, but he can expect strong competition from Wessel Botha, who is the current SA u23 and African u23 champion and his compatriot Luke Moir.<\/p>\n

Miller, however, has been in great form recently, winning a UCI race in Windhoek two weeks ago, while he also excelled at the SA XCO Cup at Koedoeslaagte in South Africa at the end of February. On that occasion he came fourth overall in the Elite category, behind Du Toit, Buys and their compatriot Matthew Beers, while he was the first u23 rider, with Moir finishing fifth and Botha sixth.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old Miller, who rides professionally for the Trek Vaude team in Europe, is currently ranked 11th in the world among riders aged 21 and younger.<\/p>\n

Other Namibians who could make an impact in the u23 category include Bergran Jensen, who came fourth overall at the UCI race in Windhoek two weeks ago, and Hugo Hahn, although he is a doubtful starter as he is still recovering after breaking his collarbone during training.<\/p>\n

Namibia’s Kevin Lowe and Daniel Hahn will be amongst the favourites in the Junior Men’s category after some superb performances this year.<\/p>\n

At the SA XCO Cup at Koedoeslaagte in South Africa they dominated the junior category, with Hahn beating Lowe in a sprint to the line, while the top South African rider, Massimiliano Ambrosi finished more than two minutes behind in third place.<\/p>\n

Lowe, however, beat Hahn by 10 seconds at the UCI race two weeks ago, and the two Namibians are now ranked 24th and 25th in the UCI world junior rankings (for u19 riders), while they are also the top ranked 17-year-old riders in the world.<\/p>\n

The Elite Women’s race should see a great battle between South Africa’s Candice Lill and Mariske Strauss for top honours.<\/p>\n

The two recently teamed up at the Cape Epic where they finished third overall and were the first African team, but Lill held the upper hand at Koedoeslaagte when she beat Strauss by six minutes.<\/p>\n

Kim Le Court of Mauritius, who recently won the Cape Town Cycle Tour, will also be in action, while Namibia’s hopes will rest with Courtney Liebenberg.<\/p>\n

A close battle can also be expected in the u23 Women’s category, where Namibia’s Monique du Plessis and South Africa’s Andrea Schofmann will be amongst the favourites.<\/p>\n

Nedbank is the anchor sponsor of the event, which is also being financially supported by Paratus, Pupkewitz Megatech, Cymot, Pupkewitz Motors, NHP, Langerhans Pharmacy, BUCO, African Marketing and Camping Hire Namibia.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Namibia. AFRICA’S top mountain bike riders will battle it out for continental honours at the African Mountain Bike Championships which take place at the IJG Trails at Farm Windhoek on Saturday. More than 100 cyclists from about 10 African countries will compete in the Cross Country Olympic (XCO) discipline, in the Elite, u23 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":17359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17,16],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-17360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\nNamibia gears up for African MTB champs - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"AFRICA'S top mountain bike riders will battle it out for continental honours at the African Mountain Bike Championshi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/namibia-gears-up-for-african-mtb-champs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Namibia gears up for African MTB champs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"AFRICA'S top mountain bike riders will battle it out for continental honours at the African Mountain Bike Championshi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/namibia-gears-up-for-african-mtb-champs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-20T17:05:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-20T17:11:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_10-62603eb07a892.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/namibia-gears-up-for-african-mtb-champs#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/namibia-gears-up-for-african-mtb-champs\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Namibia gears up for African MTB champs\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-20T17:05:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-20T17:11:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/namibia-gears-up-for-african-mtb-champs\"},\"wordCount\":736,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/namibia-gears-up-for-african-mtb-champs#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_10-62603eb07a892.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/namibia-gears-up-for-african-mtb-champs#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/namibia-gears-up-for-african-mtb-champs\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/namibia-gears-up-for-african-mtb-champs\",\"name\":\"Namibia gears up for African MTB champs - 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