The 19th Outeniqua Chair Challenge OCC on Saturday 15 October was a huge success with athletes travelling from as far as Namibia and Zimbabwe to participate. Despite relentless rain that posed great challenges, the day was marked by precious moments of triumph and great personal satisfaction for athletes, organisers, sponsors and volunteers.
Veteran athletes and fun race participants proved their mettle, demonstrating in action the words of CET Dirk Wessels on Friday's opening night, "Limitations live only in our minds".
Chief organiser Alewijn Dippenaar described it as an incredible day. "It is not every day that nature throws such challenges at you, with rain that is relentless, but we have seen today what team work can do. Everyone, the athletes included, worked together to say we will not let the rain push us down, whatever inconvenience it causes." Hand cycle athletes who race at almost ground level had water and dirt spraying in their faces all the way from start to finish. They had no visibility with their sport glasses on, so these had to go, which exposed their eyes and made for an uncomfortable race. The rain also became an issue at the marquee tent where athletes gathered. Just before the prizegiving was to start, everyone had to move to the school hall for fear of it crashing down because of the wet conditions. This did not dampen the morale as the day concluded on a high note with athletes receiving their welldeserved prizes and medals.
The junior hand cycle para athlete, Zach Legward 15 from Cape Town, came second in the 21km race his first OCC 21km in a time of 55:06, not far behind Shaun Butler from George who clocked a time of 48:51 in the 21km senior hand cycle para division. The third overall position went to Simon
Modestu was second in his division hand cycle senior male para . Stuart McCreadie easily retained his status as the hand cycle para champion in the 42km race, clocking a time of 01:14:36, with his closest competitor Eugene Steyn ending in 01:35:49 and Lukas Ndahangwapo from Namibia third in 01:53:15. Justine Asher, hand cycle senior female para athlete, was the only female in the 42km race. She finished in 02:00:28, taking an overall fifth position. In the 10km race, Peter Samson was first over the finish line 01:17:40 followed by Jannie Pekeur 01:22:22 in second place and Adrian van der Merwe 01:32:55 in third place. Radio RSG celeb Martelize Brink finished the 10km in 02:42:27, doing it at her own pace and stopping along the way to take photos with fans.
