THE weather and ocean conspired to deliver tough conditions for the participants at the recent Ocean Heroes race at Durban’s Dairy Beach, which saw Mount Edgecombe’s Luke Nisbet and Mount Moreland’s Saskia Hockly triumph to win their respective titles in the Gold event.
The endurance event consisted of a return swim to South Beach, followed by a ski leg to the harbour wall, a run along the boardwalk to the harbour wall and back, and a Malibu board paddle to Marine SLC and back to Dairy Beach, made tougher by the blustery weather and choppy ocean conditions.
The event attracted the cream of the region’s lifesaving talent and aspirant young oceanmen and women for whom completing the endurance event was a major achievement.
Hockly came into the event off the back of her success at the Surfski Worlds in Portugal and her overall win of the Pete Marlin Women’s Surfski race in East London but said she had underestimated the demands of the Gold event.
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“To be honest, I thought I could train for this and kill it, but this is not something to take lightly. Doing a full ironman is super tough. I am an endurance athlete, so I really enjoyed the format of the event,” she explained.
She said that, despite the conditions thrown at them on the day, the depth of the field had excited her.
“A lot of people showed up to compete that I didn’t really know were part of our sport. It was great to see everyone coming together to support the event.”
The Junior Men’s honours went to Tyne van Achertbergh, and the Swim Event honours went to Sandile Shane, with Madison Alberts claiming the Women’s Swim title, while the Three-Leg Team Event was won by Emma Atkinson, Kate Lynn Todd and Jade Salter.
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