Just hours after winning the Junior Women’s 800m at the KZN Track League in Durban, Jeep Team’s Mikaela Jonsson then went on to claim her first aQuellé Mudman victory at the season-opening event, which took place on Saturday, 14 February, in Hermannsburg, KZN.

The young 2020 Olympic-hopeful, who is turning 18 in July, dominated the women’s race from start to finish, completing the full-distance event (700m swim, 20km mountain bike and 5km trail run) in 1 hour, 49 minutes and 59 seconds. Second on the podium was seasoned multi-sports veteran and multiple-Mudman winner, Sarah Gray (1h51.16), followed by Brydey Weberthird (1h54.02)

Other team news…

Paddling

Jeep Team’s multiple world-champion Hank McGregor is on a winning streak after claiming his third victory in the Varsity College Marine Surfski Series in Durban on Friday evening. The win gives McGregor the lead in the series over Matthew Bouman, who did not compete in Friday’s Hansa Surfski Challenge.

McGregor’s skills were put to the test as the choppy waters presented several challenges. McGregor got caught up in shark nets and was forced to get off his ski to untangle himself. After regaining the lead against Wade Krieger, McGregor was then knocked off his ski by an 8 metre wave. McGregor worked through the obstacles for a solid second lap to claim victory in 00:34:16, followed by Krieger (00: 34:44), Jeep Team’s Barry Lewin (00:35:42), Gene Prato (00:35:42) and Oliver Burn (00:37:19).

Says McGregor “I am stoked that I got the win after the race that I had. The sea was in quite an angry mood and it really tested all of our skills.”

Multisport

Cross-triathlon champion and one of the Jeep team’s newest athletes, Michael Lord, finished ninth in the Elite Men’s category against fierce competition at the inaugural Sanlam Cape Mile, which took place on Saturday in Grabouw, Western Cape.

Considered excellent training for the Totalsports Xterra South African Championships, which take place this coming weekend, Lord completed the 1.6km swim in 22 minutes – the same time as top Xterra athlete Stuart Marais. Danie Marais claimed podium in a super-fast time of 17 minutes and 41 seconds, only a few seconds ahead of Myles Brown in second with Chad Ho finishing third.

OCR

On Sunday, Jeep Team’sOCR and trail running athlete, Claudia Richard, finished third in the fast-paced 25km Kinetic Adventure Race alongside racing partner Ruth Avierinos in a time of two hours and 36 minutes.  

Held at the Avianto Trails in in the Muldersdrift Valley, the demanding race saw teams of two take on a trail run, two mountain bike legs, a short kayak and an obstacle course.