This past Saturday I took part in the inaugural Mr Price Anchor Challenge in Fish Hoek, Cape Town. The Anchor Challenge comprises of a 25km mountain bike ride, a 10km surfski paddle, a 1.5km surf swim and a 12 km beach run. There are no transitions so you rest between each event. The strong South East wind unfortunately caused the surf ski leg to be canceled but remaining 3 legs went on as usual.

I entered as an individual but you could have done it in teams of 2 or 4. I had a great race with eventual winner Jeremy Valerga who won by 3 minutes.

Jeremy Valerga and Jeannie Bomford win Mr Price Anchor Challenge titles

Mockes and Horners dominate individual disciplines and team results

Jeremy Valerga and Jeannie Bomford were crowned Anchor Man and Anchor Woman respectively when they won the overall individual titles in the Mr Price Anchor Challenge on Fish Hoek beach yesterday (Saturday).

The inaugural edition of the multi-event sports challenge was run in testing gale-force onshore winds and featured mountain bike, swim and running races with the planned 10 kilometre surfski paddle scrapped due to safety concerns in the windswept seas.

Valerga, from Milkwood Park, finished third in the 25 km mountain bike leg that started on the beach and traversed a course into the Silvermine Mountains, 17^th in the 500 metre inshore swim leg and sixth in the three-lap, 12 km beach run, posting an overall time of two hours, 39 minutes and 10 seconds.

Bomford romped home with the Anchor Woman title. The first woman home, and seventh overall, on her mountain bike, and fourth amongst the women in both the swim and the running legs, the KZN based triathlete recorded a combined time of 2.54.59, which would have been good enough to have captured fourth place in the individual men’s event.

The individual discipline titles were dominated by the husband and wife duos of internationally ranked triathletes Kent and Claire Horner from Tokai and World Surfski champions Dawid and Nikki Mocke, along with brother Jasper Mocke (all from Fish Hoek)

Jeremy Valerga and Jeannie Bomford

Kent Horner won the men’s mountain bike and running legs and along with Dawid Mocke, second in the swim leg, drove Team Mocke / Horner to victory in the men’s pairs team event.

Jasper Mocke won the swim leg and, with teammate and professional road cyclist Darren Lill (Steenberg) taking second in the mountain bike and running events, their Team Synergy placed second in the pairs, just over three minutes behind the winners.

Darren Lill, Jasper Mocke, Kent Honer and Dawid Mocke

Team Stray Dogs, comprising Claire Horner and Nikki Mocke, won the women’s pairs with Mocke the first woman to cross the finish line in the swim and Horner placing second in the women’s mountain bike and equal first, with Robyn Woodward, on the run.

The men’s quad team title went to The Incredibles, made up of Rudolf Zuidema (bike), John Dickerson (swim) and Julius Oosthuizen (run) while the mixed quad crown was won by The Colostomy Bags team of Trevor and Jax Metrowich and Duncan Haupt.

The event was superbly coordinated and run by the Anchor Challenge, an NPO headed by Valley Christian Church associate pastors and well known local athletes Steven Brammer and Jono Holgate, whose credo is ‘Determined to make a difference’. Proceeds from the Mr Price Anchor Challenge will be donated to local charities PBN (Prison Broadcast Network), S-Cape (part of Justice Acts) and e-t-e (Empowerment through Education).

“Despite the wind, the Mr Price Anchor Challenge has been an exhilarating event,” said Brammer. “The athletes have called it ‘dynamic’ and ‘challenging’ and are already looking forward to the 2011 edition.”

“I’d like to pay special tribute to disaster management consultant Geoff Bettison from Mediclinic whose contribution to the inaugural event was fantastic,” he added.

Sponsored by Mr Price, who also supplied the electronic timing system, the event was supported by Tuffy, who provided rubbish bags made from recycled materials and a crew of 60 assistants who ensured the course was left cleaner than before the event started.

Further support came from the Cape Argus and the Echo, Cape Image, My Training Day, Bayside, Viewpoint, Ergosport, Powerade, Mocke, Mach 1 Security, Yes! Digital Printing, Fish Hoek Lifesaving club, NSRI and a dedicated team of volunteers from the Valley Christian Church.

Further information on the Mr Price Anchor Challenge can be found at www.anchorchallenge.co.za and images of the event can be seen and purchased at www.capetownsportphotography.co.za

Mr Price Anchor Challenge

Results

Anchor Man (Individual)

1.  Jeremy Valerga               2.39.10

2.  Rory van Zyl                    2.43.25

3.  Michael Martin                2.51.04

Anchor Woman (Individual)

1.  Jeannie Bomford                        2.54.59

Men’s Pairs

1.  Team Mocke/Horner (Dawid Mocke & Kent Horner)            2.21.58

2.  Team Synergy (Jasper Mocke & Darren Lill)                         2.25.31

3.  Team Die Antwoord (Graeme Trautman & Andrew Mactavish)     3.04.53

Women’s Pairs

1.  Team Stray Dogs (Claire Horner & Nikki Mocke)                  3.06.37

Quad Men

1.  Team Incredibles (R Zuidema & J Dickerson & J Oosthuizen)     2.47.51

2.  Team FTDS (G Boshoff & D Woodbridge & P Solkow)                   3.05.38

3.  Team Dog En Trails (W Mcance-Price & L Farquharson & G Frost)         3.05.47

Quad Mixed

1.  Team Colostomy Bags (T Metrowich & D Haupt & J Metrowich)   2.53.53

2.  Team Armageddon Security (T Todd & S Todd & R Woodward)   2.58.27

3.  Team Gone Like The Wind (W Marais & D Smetherham & Z Frankling-Smith)  3.14.15