Dan Howitz First in First 3 Beaches MyZA

Top EP Triathlete Dan Howitz claimed the inaugural City Lodge Hotels Group 3 Beaches Challenge individual title yesterday morning as over 100 participants took to this new and exciting event. Howitz, who placed 2nd last weekend in the SA Triathlon championships at the same venue, had to fight hard for victory and took the lead with around 1km to go.

First across the finish line on Wednesday morning was Lifesaving Ironman Andrew Skowno of the Summerstrand Surf Lifesaving Club. Skowno was in impressive form, leading the 1.6km surf ski, 800m swim, 1.1km Malibu Board paddle and 3km run from start to finish to complete the race in 42min 15 seconds from Luvuyo Nonzinyana and Francois Gous with Faye Cowie winning the ladies ironman in 49:58 from mother of two, Tracy Gous.

The swim category saw over 70 individuals heading off from Pollok Beach before coming out at Hobie Beach, Humewood Beach and finally onto Kings Beach before running back to Pollok Beach. Kings Beach Surf Lifesaver and top Masters open water swimmer PJ Duffy led from the start but was unable to maintain the lead on the run route with Howitz just too fast once he’d left the water. Duffy completed the event in 59:12, just under 45 seconds behind Howitz with seasoned triathlete and ironman competitor Alec Riddle in 3rd place. Liza Bright won the ladies individual race in 1hr 1min and 20seconds from Jade Hooke and EP swimmer Rebecca Newman.

“It was a nice race this morning, had to run my legs off to catch the top swimmers and luckily the run was just far enough for me. Huge thanks to Mike Zoetmulder and the crew from Zports – they really know how organize weird and wonderful events” said Howitz after the event.

The exciting aspect of the event was the teams categories which allowed a more social element to the event, with two person and four person teams taking part. In the Duo (2 person) category, Masters swimmer Richden Jute teamed up with Robert Smith to win their category in 1hr 03min whilst the junior combination of Nicolas Adam, Ludeke Niehaus, Rogan Scheepers Jamie Riddle got together to win the Quad Team category in 1hr and 32 seconds.

“The response to this new event was fantastic and we believe this will grow substantially in a very short period of time, particularly the lifesaving ironman category and the teams with the mixture of swimming distances along the route. Port Elizabeth has such a perfect setting for an event of this nature and there’s no reason why it couldn’t appeal to athletes from around the country.” said event organiser Mike Zoetmulder of Zports.

The event will become an annual feature on the Metro calendar and is expected to take part in March or April each year.

Top 3 finishers: PJ Duffy, Rebecca Newman, Kurt Bruiners Assistant General Manager, Town Lodge, Alec Riddle, Jade Hooke, Dan Howitz Liza Bright. Image Zports

Port Elizabeth City Lodge Hotels Group 3 Beaches Challenge Results:

Individual Swimming Category:

Men: 1 Dan Howitz 00:58:30, 2 Pj Duffy 00:59:12, 3 Alec Riddle 01:00:07, 4 Jack De kort 01:00:18, 5 Kevin Grey 01:01:47, 6 Andrew Stone 01:01:58, 7 Michael Kingston 01:02:45, 8 Howard Loftus 01:03:23, 9 Andrew Young 01:04:11, 10 Shaun Reznik 01:04:37, 11 Nick Stephenson 01:04:45, 12 Mark Willimott 01:07:53, 13 Dalen Davidson 01:08:02, 14 Brendan Creighton 01:09:34, 15 Ross Helliwell 01:10:28, 16 Simon Stewart 01:10:38, 17 Roger Hooke 01:12:15, 18 Jurie Schoeman 01:12:23, 19 Andre Kleynhans 01:12:31, 20 Jonathan Mandell 01:12:43, 21 Neil Trollip 01:13:59, 22 Troy Theodosiou 01:14:55, 23 Gavin Biggs 01:15:59, 24 Charlie Hills 01:16:03, 25 Brett Caudwell 01:16:21, 26 Brendan Hammond 01:16:40, 27 Adrian Van biljon 01:17:09, 28 Graham Richards 01:17:22, 29 Andries Fourie 01:17:28, 30 Chris Viljoen 01:19:23, 31 Fabian Smith 01:21:12, 32 Celeste Swart 01:21:27, 33 Roger Oakley 01:23:32, 34 Fulvio Falco 01:23:39, 35 Gerrit Olivier 01:23:42, 36 Charles Bataille 01:23:48, 37 Christo Van ryswyk 01:24:39, 38 Michael Fowler 01:24:50, 39 Sian Okeeffe 01:26:02, 40 Brian Saunders 01:27:24, 41 Rob Ermes 01:28:05, 42 Ian Ross 01:29:38, 43 Jaco Potgieter 01:37:11, 44 Errol Mallinson 01:37:23, 45 Justin Gemill 01:37:39, 46 Colin Mcall 01:38:19, 47 Anton Van de venter 01:40:31, 48 Wilfred Lawson 01:40:33, 49 Wayne Pauls 01:53:49
Ladies: 1 Liza Bright 01:01:20, 2 Jade Hooke 01:10:45, 3 Rebecca Newman 01:12:18, 4 Ingrid Brown 01:12:51, 5 Jane Barnardo 01:13:55, 6 Denise Bosman 01:16:37, 7 Margie Saunders 01:21:17, 8 Kim Verwoerd 01:21:33, 9 Sally Waterworth 01:24:30, 10 Mary-anne Stott 01:25:18, 11 Stacey Lopes 01:25:42, 12 Karen Strydom 01:28:30, 13 Val Beetham 01:33:25, 14 Glenda lee Thomas 01:33:28, 15 Helen Kernohan 01:35:14, 16 Elana Van rooyen 01:37:35, 17 Sune Truscott 01:47:19, 18 Elmarie Bezuidenhout 01:57:32, 19 Maria Stott 01:58:26, 20 Amanda Shaw 02:03:51

Duo Team Category:

1 Richden Jute/Robert Smith 1:03:50.3, 2 Brenden Bosch/Jodie Bosch 1:03:59.5, 3 Joshua Mcgrath/Robynne Klee 1:04:28.6, 4 Adrian Clarke/Gavin Moore 1:04:37.7, 5 Philip Weddell/Cindy Jansen van rensburg 1:08:02.3, 6 Gawie Henning/Kaelin Meyer 1:10:14.4, 7 Esme Joubert/Christiaan Joubert 1:10:27.0, 8 Stephani Le roux/Megan Cloete 1:12:44.0, 9 Roger Steele/Lindsay Steele 1:21:04.0, 10 John Karantees/Kerry Hains 1:21:07.9, 11 Zack Serfontein/Danie Serfontein 1:23:40.0, 12 Tracey Grosse/Michael Grosse 1:24:14.6, 13 Dewald Van eyk/Marle Van eyk 1:25:11.6, 14 Andre Coetzer/Anita Coetzer 1:31:38.1

Quad Team Category:

1 Nicolas Adam/Ludeke Niehaus/Rogan Scheepers/Jamie Riddle 1:00:32.0, 2 Bradley Nelson/Creedence Pattinson/Kenneth Pattinson/Erin Mukheibir 1:04:06.4, 3 Terence Adam/Conal Turner/Markus Burri/Ian Thomson 1:10:08.6, 4 Karl Mclachlan/Hendri Badenhorst/Kevin Fourie/Jessie Schroeder 1:14:56.1, 5 Travis La Mude/Duncan Milne/Lee-Anne Collyer/Dale Moulton 1:15:22.8, 6 Michelle Elfick/Rochelle Barr/Claire Breetzke/Almarie Janse van rensburg 1:23:48.4, 7 Andrew Van gruting/Darin Wilson/Stephan Kotze/Thomas Adams 1:26:33.2

Surf Lifesaving Ironman Category: