Namibia’s junior cyclists Kevin Lowe and Daniel Hahn made history this year as they became the first Namibian cyclists to be ranked number one and three respectively in the cross-country men’s junior rankings.
Lowe and Hahn, both 18 years old and currently Namibia’s top junior men’s Mountain Bike (MTB) riders, represented the country at several Swiss Cup MTB races and the International Cycling Union (UCI) MTB World Championships in France, last year.
In the latest ranking released by UCI in January 2023, Lowe is ranked first with 338 points while Hahn is ranked third with 306 points. Antonio Solano Diego of Colombia is in second place at 319 points.
In an interview with Nampa on Wednesday, Lowe said having two Namibians in the top three positions means a lot to him.
“All the hard training hours and racing are paying off. It was something I wanted to achieve and always dreamed of. Now that I have achieved this I am more than proud and thankful. A lot of people supported me through the years and all of it helped a lot,” he said
He said the top spot in the world, however, adds pressure to his racing, but he will try and keep as calm as he can come race day.
“I am motivated to work hard and put a lot of work into training so that I can maintain this ranking for as long as possible,” said Lowe, who stated that he has a few goals for the year with the Road Bike National Championships, the Mountain Bike National Championships, African Championships being the biggest.
The World Championships also form part of his goal to keep this ranking for as long as possible while aspiring to finish school with good marks.
Hans du Toit, the national cyclist’s coach, told this agency that the ranking gives Namibia credibility in the world scenes to compete with the best.
All the big countries like Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland, he said, have massive programmes in the junior ranking and they are all trying to get back to the number one spot in the juniors.
“When they now open the ranking, they will see two Namibians in the top three in the world which shows something is going on in Namibia. Most of them don’t even know where Namibia is,” Du Toit said.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
