Today (Sunday) the Mixed Team Relay is at 2:30pm Mauritian time (12.30 Zim time). The Zim team is made up of Andie, Mikayla, Matt and Luke Steffens. They will race in the following order: Andie, Matt, Mikayla, Luke. They will be competing over a distance of 200m swim – 5km bike – 2km run against teams from SA, Tunisia, Mauritius, France/Reunion.
Africa Champs 2019 Mixed Team Relay has to be the most exciting race to date that I have ever experienced.
Team Zimbabwe, consisting of Andie Kuipers, Matt Denslow, Mikayla Colegrave and Luke Steffens competed in this order over a 250m swim, 2 laps of 2,5km each on the bike and 2km run.
Team South Africa were ranked 1st, France 2nd, Tunisia 3rd, Zimbabwe 4th and Mauritius 5th.
Andie exited the water in 4th position. SA were first and stayed 1st winning the Gold medal. The race was now down to Zim, France and Tunisia. Andie broke away from Tunisia and France on the bike to give Zim a good head start for Silver. Andie tagged Matt who maintained the lead but the gap closed to 15 seconds. Matt tagged Mikayla who was caught by France and Tunisia in the water, so she started the bike on her own 4th overall. She took the bull by the horns, passed both teams to bring Zim back into 2nd position, tagging Luke and giving him a 20sec lead. France caught him in the swim so they started the bike together with Tunisia hot on their heels. Luke finished the bike with France, outran France to win Zimbabwe the silver medal overall.
So proud of these 4 athletes who gave their absolute all, showing true Zimbabwean spirit!!
Well done Team Zimbabwe.
