The Aquelle Cordwalles Mudman took place at Midmar Dam this past weekend and despite the rain falling during the night the participants were not put off – true MUDman spirit!! The event was a great success attracting 1408 entries, which is a little creepy to me and maybe you too if you’ve seen the horror movie ’1408′. On the racing side of things, the usual stars Tyronne White, Justin Porteous, Daniel Carleton, J.P. van der Linder and also the new face to Mudman Gareth Harrington, who has been injured up to now, all made their ways to the start line. K-Swiss athletes Henri Schoeman and Glen Gore, who are both well known in the road triathlon scene, also decided to come out, making this Mudman a much more competitive field than the previous two Mudmans this year. For me, unfortunately my knee injury has meant I can’t run and ride at the moment but instead of missing out I managed to get a team together with brothers Evan and Elmo van der Spuy making sure we didn’t miss out on the fun!

Evan claiming it for Team Jeep after his flying run! (Ryan swam and Elmo biked)

 

In the individuals, Tyronne ended up coming out on top just ahead of Justin. Not far behind was another close match up between Daniel and Gareth who is going to be one to watch for as he gets stronger and stronger after his injury. Our team had a great day out leading the team event from start to finish crossing the line about a minute ahead of Tyronne (about time a team won the event overall!).

The sad news coming out of the event was hearing about Henri Schoemans crash on the MTB leg. Latest update from him:

wow thank u everyone for the messages:) surgery went great! shattered my collar bone into 4 pieces but all pinned up now and feeling good!

Besides the collar bone he also fractured his elbow and shoulder. Great to see he’s still in good spirits and hopefully he’ll have a speedy recovery and be back into races soon!

"Team Jeep" soon to be engraved. Awesome floating trophy!

 

So that’s all for now. Don’t forget about the last Mudman of the year at Thornlea Dam, which will be hosted by DPHS on 17 April. For more details check out the Mudman site: www.mudman.co.za.

See you all there!

PS: Here are the full results from the 2011 Mudman events so far:

Hermannsburg Mudman Results

Epworth Mudman Results

Cordwalles Mudman Results

 

And here’s the broadcasting times to look out for:

Aquelle Mudman Series TV Schedule