Published February 5, 2010 02:17PM
Dan Hugo Takes First Win Of Xterra Season In South Africa
South Africa’s Dan Hugo overcame wet, muddy conditions to take the first Xterra win of 2010 in his home country.See the complete press release below:
Although the North West Province was plagued by extremely wet weather conditions on Saturday (Jan. 30), it seemed to have no impact on South Africa’s top multisport and lifestyle athletes when a record field of close to 1,000 competitors swarmed to the magnificent Buffelspoort Dam to test their skills at the second leg of the 2009/2010 DueSouth XTERRA presented by Rehidrat.
Dan Hugo (pictured) was once again in top form to secure the individual men’s title, while Susan Sloan was victorious in the individual women’s category of the event that combined a 1.5km swim, 26.5km mountain bike and 12.5km trail run.
According to Hugo, the course was extremely muddy due to the rain, but lots of fun. “Today’s race was awesome and it was amazing to see how the Xterra has grown. Kent Horner and Charl Keet swam really well and exited the water about 25 seconds ahead of me. Although the mountain bike route was very slippery, I managed to catch them quite quickly. The course was a little shorter as it had to be adapted at the last minute due to the weather. It was, however, still very challenging with lots of rocky, loose sections. I really enjoyed the run especially the section where we had to cross a stream. Today was a great indicator of where I am in terms of racing condition and fitness. There is still one or two points that I need to work on before the Xterra South Africa Championship in Grabouw. I am really excited about the South African finals, ultimately this is the one event where I’d like to produce the goods,” says Hugo, who completed the race in an impressive time of 2:16:55. Kent Horner came in second, while Rob Woestenborghs of Belgium finished third.
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Top 5 Men
1. Dan Hugo (2:16:55)
2. Kent Horner (2:24:54)
3. Rob Woestenborghs (2:29:33)
4. Justin Porteous (2:29:56)
5. Charl Keet (2:30:45)
Top 5 Women
1. Susan Sloan (3:02:44)
2. Sylvia van Tromp (3:07:43)
3. Riana de Lange (3:17:32)
4. Nicky Booyens (3:22:22)
5. Helen Squirrell (3:23:25).