I’ve said it many times but pictures say a thousand words. The header image is no exception and I’m sure it is worthy of pages given not only the plethora of world class athletic talent present, but also the sheer diversity of characters and personalities in those high-octane physiologies. Yes, there are a few diesels in there too but you get the picture (sic).
Taken by former Triathlete Magazine editor Richard Graham, the scene is the start of Powerman Zofingen 1993, back in the days when duathlon was still a major form of multi-sport. This Swiss event was the unofficial long-distance World Championships of the day and a brutal one at that. Starting uphill with 7.5km run, competitors transitioned into a mountainous 150km bike ride before finishing with a vicious 30km off-road run back into the small Suisse hamlet of Zofingen.
Aficionados will recognize several multisport legends on the front row: Mark Allen (aka “The Grip”), Greg Welch and Jurgen Zack are all visible. But if one looks a little closer and one will notice a trio of then-unheralded South Africans on the far right. Resplendent in blue, white and green strip, Greg Von Holdt, Ben Jansen Van Vuuren and Mike Cronje stand out by their "almost-crouching-like-sprinters" stances, stopwatches at the ready. Nick Bester and Ian Cocker (not in picture) were two other “Japies” that made up a formidable contingent from Down South.
Sure, “The Grip” obliterated the field, unsurprising given his being in his prime, but that is not really the point of this post. Rather it is to highlight the fact that a group of plucky – and interesting - South Africans set the pace early on, with Von Holdt being right up in podium contention until late in the race. Unbeknownst to most that the articulate Johannesburger was the only athlete in the field that had started and finished the Milk Race the previous year, which was an Olympic Year at that. Not too many participants had competed in Comrades Marathon either but Bester had, winning it just two years before. Van Vuuren had run Rockley Montgomery close at the Leppin canoe Ironman that year and Cronje was as fleetfooted a runner as Cocker was a musically-inclined engineer who juggled work and family with elite duathlon and quirky magazine columns.
All of these guys paid the majority of their way to Switzerland with limited sponsor support, many putting their careers and families on the backburner in the quest for athletic glory in forests and up the mountains for Switzerland. They might not have featured in the final results sheet but that doesn’t matter. The fact of the matter is this: they had the balls to actually try, showing their hand to the world’s best who probably had never heard of them up until that point.
So now that the yarn is over, Greg, Nick, Ben, Mike and Ian, if any of you happen to read this trip down memory lane, feel free to get in touch. Commentary from “the horse’s mouth” so to speak would make a great sequel.
Note: Header Image by Richard Graham seen first on Triathlon : plongée dans l'histoire avec les légendes à bord
