Coetzee, de Villiers victorious in windy Desert Dash
By Adolf Kaure.
The eighteenth edition of the Nedbank Desert Dash took place on 9 and 10 December, with over 1400 participants taking to the field in a grueling 397km race through the Namib Desert from Windhoek to Swakopmund.
Drikus Coetzee won the event’s solo clocking a time of 15:17:09.
According to Coetzee, he is thrilled to win the race especially since the event finished in his hometown.
“It is great relief for me to win this event. I had an awesome year, and this is the cherry on the cake because this is my hometown,” said Coetzee.
Coetzee described the conditions as good despite a bit of wind and warm temperatures in the interior.
Swiss national, Konny Looser (15: 38:53) finished second, followed by Rick Steffen (15:45:03) in third place.
The women’s solo event was won by South African, Yolande de Villiers (17:50:10).
“I am so happy. It is such a tough race and to come here and win is fantastic. There was lot of wind but when I saw Goanikontes and the moon landscape, that is when I knew that I had arrived,” she said.
Courtney Liebenberg (19:01:42) and Belinda van Rhyn (19:19:43) took second and third place respectively for the solo women.
Nedbank Namibia thanked all who contributed to the overall success of the event and for the participants for braving the Namib Desert.
The other categories which cyclists participated in were the teams of two and teams of four.
One of the teams of four included a cycling charity team, the Blush Foundation. They were sponsored by Nedbank Namibia to raise funds for its sanitary towel project.
To date the Blush Foundation has bought over 15 000 packets of sanitary towels and distributed them in Swakopmund, Henties Bay, Uis, Usakos, Omaruru, Rehoboth and Aus.
