Gold for SA's paralympics!

Monday 08/09/2008












Natalie du Toit of South Africa won the gold medal in the S9 final of Women's 100m Butterfly. (Photo credit: Xinhua)

Watch the video!

Maxwell out runs Mlambo for Spar victory

Marathoner Tanith Maxwell out ran Poppy Mlambo over the final two kilometres to win Sunday's Spar 10km in Pietermaritzburg ahead of over 2000 ladies.

The two Mr Price athletes, who represented South Africa in the World Championships in Osaka, pulled ahead of the competition to go through the first two kilometres in seven minutes 25 seconds.

Nomsa Ntshethe held third about 30 metres adrift with the remainder of the field being stretched by the challenging course around the Alexander Park area.

Maxwell was driving the pace up Alexander Road through half way, but on the final climb up Princess Margaret Avenue it was Mlambo who had the edge through eight kilometres in 29 minutes ten seconds.

Outside Harry Gwala Stadium Maxwell made her move opening over 150 metres in less than a kilometre and taking the tape and the R3 000 first prize in 36 minutes three seconds.

The diminutive Mlambo was 36 seconds adrift with Ntshethe remaining in third for the whole race.

"It wasn't about time (today). I have run this race a few times and wanted to compare my fitness against previous runs (on the course)," said Maxwell who leaves for Europe next week where she competes in the Flora Warsaw Marathon at the end of the month.

"It was great having Poppy here; it helped to keep a good pace on the hills."

"After (JHB) I want to go back to marathon and half marathons," continued the 27-year-old who did 35:20 for 16th position in last weeks SA 10 Km championships in Stellenbosch.

RESULTS

1 Tanith Maxwell MrP 36:03
2 Poppy Mlambo MrP 36:39
3 Nomsa Ntshethe MrP 39:01
4 Thobile Ngwane MrP 40:24
5 Sarah Scott CH 43:00
6 Lungile Mngoma Msinigi 43:04
7 Debbie Eaton CH 43:38
8 Maria Mthembu Boxer 43:40
9 Nondikelelo Mbambo 43:57













Double gold for Team SA!















Charl Bouwer added a second for Team SA in the 400m freestyle (class S13) in a new world record time of 4:14.02. The previous world record stood at 4:16.20.

In the final race of the day, Du Toit added to her medal haul with a second gold, this time in the 100m freestyle (class S9).

Watch Charl Bouwer's 400m freestyle S13 gold video!

Watch Natalie Du Toit's 100m freestyle S9 gold video!

Equestrian gold for SA's Johnson

Fourteen Grade IV riders displayed their Dressage skills to get the best from their horses, but Philippa Johnson's (South Africa) electrifying performance with Benedict won her the gold medal with a top score of 69.290 points.

The intricate steps of "enjoying the canter so much that I forgot I was supposed to trot" helped Johnson to overcome the efforts of Ann Cathrin Lubbe (Norway) riding her faithful Zanko, the horse that helped her claim the gold in the Athens 2004 Games. In third place was Georgia Bruce (Australia), astride V Salute, with a score of 68.258, just 0.254 points behind Lubbe.

In other news :
Nicholas Newman collects bronze in Javelin!

Tuesday 09/09/2008

Photos: Oscar Pistorius of South Africa wins Men's 100m - T44 gold!


















Watch Oscar Pistorius, Men's 100, T44 Final nailbiting close Gold Video!

Wednesday 10/09/2008










The bronze medal went to Gavin Kilpatrick of South Africa and pilot Michael Thomson who beat Japan's Tatsuyuki Oshioro and his pilot Takahashi Hitoshi in the third place ride-off.

Watch our bronze medal cycling video feat Michael Thomson & Gavin Kilpatrick in the mens sprints!

Photos: Kevin Paul wins Men's 100m Breaststroke SB9 gold!

















Watch Kevin Paul's 100m breastroke Gold Medal video!















Fanie Lombard bronze in Men's Shot Put - F42 & David Roos silver in Men's Long Jump - F46!

Second gold for Johnson!

Philippa Johnson won her second gold medal and South Africa's seventh when she took gold in the individual freestyle test equestrian event at the Paralympic Games on Wednesday. Her freestyle routine at the Hong Kong equestrian arena wowed the judges, and she ended up taking the individual freestyle test with a sparkling performance on Benedict. She scored 77.272 points to win comfortably from Ann Lubbe of Norway and Georgia Bruce of Australia.

"What an incredible horse," she said afterwards. "I just love Benedict. He dug deep and pulled out all the stops for me."

She won two silvers in the last Paralympics, and was understandably delighted at the improvement. She has been working with her coach Chris Haazen from the Netherlands towards the performance, and, although she lives in Belgium, she was acutely aware of support from South Africa.

"I want to thank everyone at home. It's made history for South Africa and South Africans can now hold their own in the equestrian Paralympics," she said.

Her medal took South Africa's haul to seven golds, a silver and three bronzes at the end of the fourth day of the Beijing Paralympics which places the country eighth on the table.

Thursday 11/09/2008

SA team for World Half Marathon

Athletics South Africa (ASA) on Thursday announced a team of five men and three women athletes to participate in the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships that will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 12.

The final team has been selected after the highly successful Nedbank SA 10km Championships held in Stellenbosch on August 30.

The Championships served as the final trial for the athletes who were part of the provisional squad selected after the Nedbank SA Half Marathon Championships in Port Elizabeth in July.
Enos Matelane, who finished fourth at the SA 10km Championships and was selected in the provisional team, requested to be omitted from the final team as he is preparing for the Nedbank Cape Town City Marathon.

The athletes have proved to selectors both in Stellenbosch and Witbank at the Cross Country Championships that their preparations are well on track for Brazil.

Equally so, the women have been in excellent form, especially Zintle Xiniwe who is maturing into a fine runner, demonstrating that they too should perform well in the world event.

The team:
MEN: Boy Soke (AFS), Stephen Mokoka (AVT), Tshamano Setone (CGA), Jeffrey Gwebu (CGA), Lindikhaya Mthangayi (WPA).
WOMEN: Zintle Xiniwe (WPA), Annerien van Schalkwyk (AGN), Ntombesintu Ntshiliza (EPA).















Du Toit takes third gold!

In other news :

Photos: Natalie Du Toit claims title of Women's 200m Individual Medley SM9!















Watch Natalie du Toit, Women's 200m Individual Medley, Gold Video!

Friday 12/09/2008

We're leaving at 2pm and will be staying at the Berry Farm in Swellendam. Frikkie posted the Race against Crime 21km flyer for a race nearby!

Gabrselassie aims to lower marathon WR

Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie said on Thursday he is convinced he can lower his own world record at this year's Berlin marathon, on September 28.

The 35-year-old set the current marathon world record of two hours four minutes and 26 seconds on September 30 in Berlin last year, the 25th world record of his career, and he wants to go even faster over the flat 42.195 km-long course.

"I am convinced I can break the record again if the weather conditions are right," he said.
As a four times world champion and two-time Olympic champion over 10 000m, Gebrselassie is currently training at altitude near the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Gebrselassie finished fifth in the 10 000m at the Beijing Olympic Games behind compatriot and gold medal winner Kenenisa Bekele.

South Africa's Natalie du Toit claims the title and breaks the world record of the S9. (Photo credit: Xinhua)












Slattery Tadhg collects bronze in the Men's 100 Breaststroke Final!

Photos: Fanie van der Merwe claims Men's 100m-T37 gold!










Photos: Ilse Hayes of South Africa wins Women's Long Jump F13 gold!















Photos: Hilton Langenhoven claims title of Men's Pentathlon P12!










Watch Hilton's Pentathlon P12 Final Gold Video!

Salomon Puffer 80/160 ultra photo's

A few pictures of Dwarp, BellvilleAC and the forumites who completed this ultra!

Results!

Coldest weekend!

Monday 01/09/2008

Only a brave few attempted the Paarlberg 21 (chilly but not wet), Stellenbosch 10 (drenched from 1-3km's) or did their own long runs over a cold, windy & wet weekend. Me? I stayed inside or under the duvet!

Future revealed at 10km Champs

The Nedbank national 10km championships run in cold and wet conditions in Stellenbosch on Saturday delivered what may well be the future of road running, with a victory for 21 year old Powerade athlete Sibusisu Nzima.

The Randfontein based professional ran away from the cream of the crop, including defending champion Boy Soki (Free State) clocking a respectable 28 minutes 52 seconds.

"The conditions were not pleasant with the wind knocking us around, but I guess I peaked at the right time after last week's second place in the Vodacom 10km where I lead right up to the last kilometre. All I did this week was focus on my endurance and stamina, I knew that I had the natural speed.

"The weather worked in my favour as everybody was bunched up until the seven km mark, and then the surging started. Within the next kilometre we were down to only three, Boy and Steven (Makoka). First Steven dropped back and with one kilometre to go Boy dropped back, it was then that I thought I could win this," he beamed.

The women's race was a rare double for the Phalula twins with Lebo taking line honours in 33:01 with Lebogang second by a narrow one second margin. Returning 1 500 metre Olympian, Rene Kalmer, was third a further 14 seconds back.

Open Men
1 Sibusiso Nzima CGA 28:52
2 Boy Soke AFS 28:56
3 Stephen Mokoka AVT 28:57
4 Enos Matalane AGN 29:02
5 Tshamano Setone CGA 29:03

Open Women
1 Lebo Phalula CGA 33;01
2 Lebogang Phalula CGA 33:02
3 Rene Kalmer CGA 33;16
4 Zintle Xiniwe WPA 33:29
5 Helalia Johannes Boxer (NAM) 33:42.

In more news :
Nzima beats favourites in SA 10km Champs
Van Blerk wins her third Spar Challenge
WP team excels at national road running champs

Lots of secrets to success

Posted on Tuesday, September 2, 2008 in Anton Faro finished exactly 150th in the Nedbank South African Championships over 10 km on Saturday. He was 4m 04sec behind the winner, who started a few minutes before him. He’s a bit frustrated but he learnt a lot in the race.

Anton (the one in the yellow Boland shirt) passed hundreds of runners during the race, but gave himself too much to do.

Anton warms up for 15 minutes before each race, on his own. He normally joins up with the packed crowd on the start line just behind the front row.

The SA Champs was his first really big race and the start was in a narrow street in old Stellenbosch. The front half a dozen rows were reserved for the seeded runners and when Anton arrived at the line-up from his exercises, the only place that he could squeeze in was in among the back 200 of the 956 runners. By the time he got over the start line the front half of the field were out of sight (have you ever seen a Comrades marathon start?).

He’s going to write his first email this week. He’s going to tell Caroline Stevens (his far-away coach) how the training programme is going and the things he learnt during this last race.

Weather looking more promising this week!












Tuesday 02/09/2008

Penny Heyns Focuses on Real Personal Victory - for full article















Aren't we teaching the wrong principles here? I don't think the Olympics were created for that. The message to the people back home would be one of, ‘no medals equals poor performance'. But how many of those athletes would have made the finals and achieved personal bests?"

I lost count of the number of occasions I'd win races and then feel as though I hadn't succeeded because I hadn't delivered my best. Conversely, there were many races I didn't win, but inwardly I knew I had performed beyond my expectations.

When I was an emerging swimmer I wouldn't always win an event, but I'd often swim a personal best. Who in that instance is the success: the person who has produced a lifetime best or the winner who may have won in a slow personal time? If you are driven by a desire to beat one person one day, and another person the next day ... if that is what gets you up every morning and put in the hard yards, if that keeps you going, then what happens when you reach the top? When there's no one left to chase, how do you keep improving? If you measure your success only against others, you limit yourself.

Most will come to a point where they bump into someone they know they can't beat in a hundred years of trying. What then? However, if you're improving yourself - and fortunately swimming is one of those sports where you can always measure yourself against the clock - then that is the true benchmark of success. All of the worlds greatest athletes first operate on the principle of producing personal bests.... Hence their success.

Successful people frequently risk failure. Someone once said, "If you want to double your success rate, you have to double your failure rate." Mistakes are inevitable, but every time one makes a mistake and chooses to learn from it, it builds strength and character and leads to growth.

Keep in mind that in the '92 Barcelona Olympics I finished 33rd and 34th in the 100m and 200m breaststroke events respectively. In my mind these were definitely failures given that I swam way slower than my personal best times, however, despite the disappointments, I knew that there was much growth potential to glean from the experience.

In conclusion, know that the key to success and a fulfilled life is in making the right choices and then sticking to them. Successful people are those who never shy away from decisions. They are people who do what no one else will do. They constantly find ways to seek the answers that no one else will.

They do and are willing to take risks to make things happen. They are passionate because they know where they are going and they have set realistic goals. They are focused and remain motivated because they refuse to give up. They focus on improving themselves, not on beating others.

They strive to unleash the potential within them, not to outdo others. That may be the outcome, but it is never the goal. The goal is to surpass themselves. They learn from their mistakes. They are not afraid to fail. They constantly grow as people and, as Anthony Robbins, a recognised authority on peak performance, so aptly puts it, "We have to start growing, or we start to die."

God bless always.

Wednesday 03/09/2008

Honouring Elana Meyer - for full article

Elana gave South Africans a reason to feel like they belong, when she won South Africa's first Olympic medal since readmission, claiming silver in the 10 000 metres final at the Barcelona Games in 1992 - the defining moment of her career.

Between 1992, when she exploded onto the international scene, and 2005, when she retired, Elana performed consistently well on the world stage and was a feared and respected competitor wherever she competed. At the age of 35, Elana broke the South African national 10km record in Budapest, and continued to race successfully until her retirement three years later.

The biggest learning's and lessons in my life came through my sport. To have dreams and goals, to take brave steps into the unknown , not to be scared to fail and to have the right attitude in life and the belief and confidence. My mother is the person with the best ATTITUDE I have ever met and was the best role model I could ask for.

When I started running Sarina Cronje was a role model for me, and I also competed against Zola Budd since I was 13,14 and that also had a big impact on my career.

Take little brave steps forward and as you succeed it will build and feed confidence.

I learned at a young age that I have to compete with the right attitude, do it with all the guts and determination - only then you can look back and say that you have given it your best and if you did not win it wasn't because you did not give your best effort but because I was beaten by someone better on the day.

What have been your top three career highlights?

To get the Olympic medal, to be a world champion and to break six world records.

Thursday 04/09/2008

Was feeling very overtired with stomachs cramps yesterday. Must be something in the air because 2 collegues didn't pitch for work today. I almost did the same but the early night and chicken pasta + biltong pieces seemed to have provided the sustanance I needed.

Read an article this morning, the warning signs of overtraining!

Friday 05/09/2008

Top field for Cross Country Champs

All Athletics South Africa's 17 member provinces have sent their strongest teams to the South African Cross Country Championships which will take place on Saturday at Lesedi Village in Witbank.

In all, some 2000 athletes are expected to participate and top performers will stand a chance to be selected for the IAAF world championships that will take place in Jordan in March 2009.

Lebogang Phalula (CGA) and Violet Raseboya are expected to dominate among the women, while in the senior men, Boy Soke (AFS), Stephen Mokoka (AVT) and Tshamano Setone (CGA) should contest the top spots.

The three of them were in action at the Nedbank 10 km Championships in Stellenbosch last week, where they finished in the top five positions.

Events will start at 9am and finish at 4pm.