The Namibian Cycling Federation (NCF) will this coming weekend host the 12th African Cycling Confederation (CAC) Mountain Bike (MTB) Africa Championships at the IJG trails on Farm Windhoek in Kleine Kuppe.
This year’s event will see riders from South Africa, Mauritius, Tunisia, Kenya and Morocco compete against Namibians on 23 April, and will also be used by the NCF to select athletes that will represent Namibia in mountain bikes at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England in July and August.
Vaino Kali, NFC marketing officer told Nampa on Monday that more African countries are still expected to register for the championships.
“With entries still open we expect around 10 nations to compete and altogether, about 120 cyclists to compete in the International Cycling Union (UCI) races,” he said adding that this will be the third time that Namibia will be hosting the CAC MTB Africa Championships.
The marketing officer also stated that this prestigious Mountain Biking event in the Cross Country Olympic (XCO) discipline will be sponsored by Nedbank Namibia.
Kali also said Alan Hatherly who is currently ranked sixth in the World from South Africa, together with his teammates and fellow Cape Epic riders Matt Beers, Phillip Heyns, Luke Moir and Mariske Strauss will grace the event.
“Our local Tokyo 2020 Olympian Alexander Miller is in top form, having comfortably won last weekend’s UCI Class 1 race ahead of Johan van Zyl from South Africa and Cameron Wright of Australia,” he boasted.
Namibia, he said is currently the second-highest ranked African country in mountain biking (behind South Africa) therefore the CAC MTB African Championships promises to be exciting and spectator friendly.
The Elite races will start with the Elite women, Under-23 (U23) women and junior women at 09h30 while the junior men race will be at 12h30 and the Elite men, as well as the U23 Men race, will be at 14h00.
The event will be held under the license of the CAC and the governing body, the UCI.
Source: The Namibian Press Agency
