Times Of Swaziland: CYCLISTS OUT OF COMMONWEALTH GAMES

CYCLISTS OUT OF COMMONWEALTH GAMES
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Sanele Jele on 08/08/2022 15:24:00


MBABANE – Their best was not enough.
This is after Eswatini duo of Kwanele Jele and Muzi Shabangu crashed out of the
gruelling 160 kilometres over 10 laps of a 16km course in Warwick, Australia. 
They could not finish due to the 10-minute rule. It states that once you are
trailing 10 minutes from the one leading the race, you are forced to pull out of
the race. They were pulled out after 48km. Muzi had done 01:12:48 (11:07 minutes
behind the leading peleton, while Kwanele had 01:13:21 (11:42) minutes behind
the leading peleton).
It was not going to be an easy race as they were racing among the best 124
cyclists in the world. Only 73 finished the race. The winner was Australia’s
Aaron Gate with a time of 03:28:29 hours and he was followed by South Africa’s
Daryl Impey on 03:28:29 hours. They were separated by split seconds. Reached for
comment Eswatini Cycling Association President, Sifiso ‘Zwide’ Ndwandwe
said: “It’s was an intense race and it was exciting to watch with many
lessons to pick out and build on for the future. We’ll await the technical
report and make decisions from there, but we already know we need to identify
more International Cycling Union- accredited races to send our cyclists to so
they can accumulate more points and improve their seeding so they at least start
further up the field,” said Ndwandwe.
He also said the races would also give them a lot more experience with riding in
that high-intensity space. “This is definitely not the end of the road for our
two boys as they have shown over the last six months that they have the
commitment to make time to put themselves in the high pressure environments and
learn and improve from there, so they definitely form the core of our plans
moving forward and we’ll continue to push and support them. We believe they
have a great potential to do us proud on the international stage,” he said. He
also appreciated Coach Artwell Ndzinisa for the work he has done since coming on
board.