There is a tendency to assume world-class athletes are slaves to numbers, graphs and all things science. While that may very well be true for some, many top-class performers I’ve known over the years actually follow a far more “low tech” approach to their chosen sport. Little known fact: many amateur athletes/weekend warriors are far more “scientific” when it comes to training. Racing is a different story though and however unscientific some elite athletes might, one thing that stands out as commonplace among them is their knowing how to “go to the brink” on race day, training – or lack of – be damned.
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On any given early-Saturday morning the small seaside village of Simon’s Town would be quiet and the local beach empty, save for a few fishermen or dog walkers. The naval base would be on weekend “stand easy” as the local cafes would open their doors to local customers and the odd cyclist stopping for a Bar One and Coke.
But this particular Saturday was different. Long Beach car park was a hive of tri-athletic activity as the venue played host to the 1992 Western Province Triathlon Championships. The header image shows the podium that day. Port Elizabeth’s Kevin Richards, the winner of the day, is flanked by two Capetonians in Tim Stewart (left) and Chad Gordon. But the race result itself is only part of a bigger picture.
Look very closely at Tim Stewart’s rear disc-wheel. There is a thorn in the “tubby” (read: tubular tyre). Is it going down yet he asked, as I pulled it out while chatting post-race. Like most top triathletes of the day, Stewart didn’t carry a spare on his Lejeune 753 and yet to puncture in competition. Training was a different story though. In fact, his approach to training was unique in many respects. A medical doctor working at day hospitals on the Cape Flats, the foundation of Dr. Stewart’s run training was nocturnal jogging, almost always after 8pm and often in the company of his two staffies. While he thrived on consistency, it was in a way that fitted around his unique lifestyle and myriad of interests. Triathlete he was but also doctor, bonsai tree connoisseur, artist, musician, raconteur, house renovator, wood-worker and so on. Long training rides were an opportunity to discuss the finer details and intricacies of all things current, especially body weight and his upcoming overseas trip. The weeks leading up to this particular WP Champs were anything but conventional in training terms what with his working double-shifts at the aforementioned hospitals. Are we ever ready for these things he chirped while pulling on his wetsuit only minutes before the starting gun. In fact, he had cycled only a handful of times and swam once in the final fortnight.
Richards effectively led the race from start to finish, emerging from the surf with his customary big lead. Stewart played catchup throughout riding and running his way in second position on his local stomping grounds of Smitswinkelbaai and Red Hill and Main Road. Chad Gordon was his usual consistent self, displaying his innate athleticism and thoroughbred runner’s physique to round of the podium in third.
So where are these blokes nearly twenty five years later?
Shortly after the 1992 Western Province Championships, Tim Stewart relocated to the United Kingdom settling down in the town of Guilford where he still lives. Representing Great Britain at European and World Championship level for many years, he is now in private practice. On recent visit to Cape Town, Stewart bemoaned his lack of physical activity due to long working hours - he gets home from at 7pm and has to make decision: go for a run or have a beer. Ever the observer, he also recounted how one just knows when someone is an artist, citing an example of how a friend of his just sketched a Spanish flag whilst eating tacos in Barcelona. Needless to say Stewart hasn’t changed much.
A waterman by nature, Kevin Richards also pursued the top-tier of triathlon for several years after this photo becoming the leading South African triathlete for a few seasons. A veteran of French professional triathlon circuit, Richards eventually retired from the sport and sailed around the world before also settling in the UK where he lived and worked for many a year. A natural coach, he is now back in his hometown of Port Elizabeth juggling his successful wetsuit business with bringing up his sons, coaching both professionally and voluntarily, and surfing of course.
Chad Gordon, like Stewart and Richards, went on to race at the top level nationally and internationally before relocating to the US to qualify as a chiropractor. A frequent sufferer of running-related ailments in his youth, the field of chiropractic is almost a natural progression for the talented Capetonian, who returned to his home shores to set up practice in the late nineties. Endurance sport remains his passion and Gordon now cycles and runs in the idyllic forests and surrounds of his quiet home in Grabouw. His house is a hive activity, what with a vegetable garden, chickens aplenty, his wife Anke’s horses, not to mention a half-pipe situated in his front garden for the his young kids and the rest of the neighbourhood to run (and skate) amok.
Header image courtesy of Shawn Benjamin and Ark Images.
