KELLY, SIHAWU COMPLETE 175KM IN LESS THAN 11 HOURS

MBABANE – Local cyclists showed a competitive edge when it comes to Mountain Bike racing in the past weekend.

This was witnessed during the 15th edition of the Inyatsi Swazi Frontier MTB race which started at Hawane Resort last Thursday and ended at Maguga Lodge on Saturday. The 175km race saw over 100 cyclists sweat it out and local riders emerged as victorious winning the three-stage race. Legendary rider William Kelly and his partner from Total Energies managed to be overall winners after clocking a combined time of 10:45:04 hours. They were closely followed by 2019 winners in International Tool Hire’s Lungelo Mlangeni and Sihle Dlamini on 10:50:35 hours.  

clocked

The runners-up clocked about 50 minutes later as compared to their previous  time in 2019 where they won the race with a  record of 10:02:20 hours. The race was postponed due to COVID-19.Worth noting is that Kelly won this race when he partnered with Thulani Gule in 2018 and they clocked 11:06:47 hours. Asked why they could not beat the 2019 time, Kelly blamed it on the muddy and slippery surface. “You know despite that we won stage one, our time was not impressive, it was raining and we had punctures along the route,” Kelly said.

Meanwhile, his partner, Sihawu, said they were happy about their achievement. “You will recall that this is a new era, where COVID-19 had affected everything from training and hosting this race last year. I am happy that we were the eventual winners,” he said.

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