Late '88 and things were going great in international triathlon. Paula Newby-Fraser had raced to eleventh overall in Kona, Rob Barel had narrowly held off a flying Scott Molina in Nice and 'to-be-Mrs Molina Erin Baker had run faster than most of the pro men at that same race. Pigg Power was in full swing Stateside and Kenny Souza was earning a lucrative living as a 'biathlete.' Yet several thousand miles (or kilometres) south, an unknown teenager was making waves behind the 'Apartheid Curtain,' and would soon become an overwhelming force in the triple disciplined sport.
The reason Simon Lessing looks so young in the header image is because he was seventeen years of age at the time. It is mid-December 1988 and the setting is Gordon's Bay, a small seaside resort town some 45 minutes drive from central Cape Town. Simon has just graduated from high school in the sub-tropical city of Durban and is breaking the tape for his first national title.
It's crazy to think that Simon was already scooping titles almost thirty years ago. A promising junior who was nipping at senior heels from around 1986, it was perhaps unsurprising that the product of Kloof broke through on that late-summer's day. Already an innate swimming and running talent, Simon was encouraged and nurtured by his swim coach, the late Dave McCarney. One of South Africa's foremost triathletes of the early to mid-eighties, McCarney was part of the London-Paris Triathlon winning Leppin Team, a throwback relay event between the two capital cities. Comprised of such local endurance luminaries as Alec Riddle and Nigel Reynolds, the team was backed and supported by Dr Tim Noakes and Comrades legend Bruce Fordye, then in the prime of his running career. And it was Reynolds who, along with McCarney, would have a lasting influence on young Simon's future career direction.
Already a stalwart on the burgeoning French professional triathlon circuit, Reynolds encouraged fellow Durbanites Simon and Michael Myers along with Eastern Cape athletes Kevin Richards and Mandy Dean to come and sample the athletic fruits of Southern France. A resident of Corsica, Reynolds possessed a significant racing palmares and had already assisted in bringing a 'rebel' French team to SA shores earlier that year.
And Simon's results on the South African circuit certainly underlined his growing talent. After beating the cream of the local talent over the sprint distance that December, he repeated this feat a few months later at the Olympic distance, but not without some controversy. Tim Stewart, a Cape Town medical doctor who had finished a close second to Simon in Gordon's Bay, took the national title in Port Elizabeth in February, with Simon taking runner-up spot. This was to be short-lived though as Stewart was accused by another competitor of drafting, and was subsequently disqualified. Ironic in a sense that his accuser would then test positive for a banned steroid, and find himself ejected from the final results.
And such is the osmosis of the sporting world that both Stewart and Lessing, team mates on the Springbok Triathlon Squad of 1989, would both represent Great Britain a few years later. But that is another story for another day. Subject to photos of course.
Anybody?
*Note: Header image first seen on Triathlon : plongée dans l'histoire avec les légendes à bord
