Nicholas Mulder and Ryno Griesel have placed second overall at the 24hr World Rogaining Champs, which was held in New Zealand this weekend. Nic says, “Big surprise! We only found out at prizegiving. Very wet and cold, extremely hilly”.
Pieter and Liz, Nicholas’ parents, spoke to him this morning. Pieter has this to say:
One of those rare occassions that you don’t mind getting an sms at 2:30 [Liz & Pieter are in Switzerland] in the morning!
Liz and I just spoke to Nicholas who, with Ryno, was obviously elated. They were not told of their achievement until the prizegiving. In fact, they thought that with luck and after a very hard slog that they would just have made the first ten. When the announcement of Silver came, the audience went “oooooooohh”, clearly Cyanosis were complete outsiders and THE surprise of the event. The going was very tough and particularly during the night their speed was not much more than 2-3 km per hour. “Like Yorkshire, but much hillier and tougher”.
As to the Gold, we are also very pleased for Chris Forne [Chris has been racing with Team Nike/Blackwater], who is a very likable guy, a top orienteer and adventure racer, prerequisites for being a successful in rogaining by the sound of it. His teammate Marcel Hagner is equally famous as an adventure racer. The Kiwis beat Ryno and Nicholas by 800 points, while Cyanosis in turn was some 300 points ahead of the third team, from Estonia.
Anyway and importantly, great for South Africa to have found a place on the world’s rogaining map!
Nic and Ryno, you have done us very, very proud. Sleep tight.
Brilliant guys!! That is really a fantastic achievement. You mad(k)e us extremely proud!
Well done Guys.
Well done Nic and Ryno! Really awesome result!