Wano Katjiri celebrated his South African citizenship with a record-breaking win at the third Noordhoek Superbowl this morning (Saturday) 26 April, with the strong-climbing Tanielle Powter clinching the women’s competition.
Almost two hundred runners took part in the ‘21km mountain race around the Noordhoek Skyline’ in warm conditions, a race which included summiting Chapman’s Peak (593m), Noordhoek Peak (754m) and Spitskop (492m), before a sharp descent to the finish at Noordhoek Farm Village.
Namibian-born Katjiri missed out on a trip to the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Austria in 2023 as he was a Nambian citizen at the time he met the qualifying standard at the Ultra-trail Drakensberg but will now be eligible to run for South Africa following the finalisation of his citizenship south of the Orange River.
“It’s been a good week,” Katjiri said. “I start my first job on Monday since graduating from hotel school – I’m moving to Stellenbosch where I’ll be working at the Lanzerac Hotel.”
After Ryle Romans won the first edition of the event in 2:06:48 in 2023, Katjiri took the honours last year in 2:00:53 and he improved his time by two minutes this morning, winning in 1:58:36 and finishing over ten minutes clear of Malawi-born Alick Kapito.
Last year’s runner-up Brandon Keeling was off his best game today, finishing third in 2:16:42.
Katjiri started to open a gap on Kapito and Keeling as the runners turned off Chapman’s Peak Drive onto the single-track climb to Chapman’s Peak, but never felt completely safe. “I was about a minute ahead at Chapman’s Peak but could see the others were right behind me,” said Katkiri. “I thought they might overtake me at any stage.”
But Katjiri need not have worried and his lead had stretched to two minutes over Kapito over Noordhoek Peak and more than four minutes as the athletes passed the aid station at the Silvermine Dam, 7km from home on his way to defending his title.
Hout Bay-based Friends of Table Mountain worker, Kapito, loves mountains and has builds his strength and fitness from his daily work on the slopes of Table Mountain. “Yesterday we were on Grootkop doing some clearing,” said the Malawian. “I really enjoyed today, although I was never going to catch Wano up front!”
Powter’s strength on the climbs proved her secret weapon on the testing route with 1189m of vertical ascent, and she pulled away from veteran Joanne Golding on the climb to Chapman’s Peak.
Golding kept within range and was just over a minute in arrears through the aid station 7km from home, with Jess Magner third a further ten minutes adrift.
Powter summited and descended Spitskop without incident to race to victory in 2:43:42, just under three minutes ahead of Golding with Magner filling the final podium position.
Results
