The first day of racing at the African Continental Championships saw the elite men tackle the team time trial discipline in Wartburg, KwaZulu-Natal. Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung had 6 riders competing during the day and we are proud to have had all 6 riders earn medals for their respective nations.
Both Eritrea and South Africa had 3 MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung riders each in their 4 man teams. Daniel Teklehaimanot, Merhawi Kudus and Natnael Berhane were all representing the East African nation. Jay Thomson, Louis Meintjes and Reinardt Janse van Rensburg were flying the colours for the host nation. It is also worth noting that the 4th rider on the South African team was MTN-Qhubeka feeder team rider, Nicholas Dlamini.
Eritrea came out on top in the 48km race against the clock. They stopped the clock just 3 seconds ahead of the South African team. In third position, Ethiopia came home just 1’12” down on the gold medal winners.
Merhawi Kudus – Rider
“We are very happy to have won the gold medal once again. We have a lot of strong riders in Eritrea now and so there is always a bit of pressure when you represent your nation. When we win this medal, it is not just the 4 riders who win but all the riders of Eritrea so we are very happy today. The performance was also a little bit more special because one of our team members had a puncture right at the start, we lost maybe 14 seconds but we never gave up.”
