Jeep Team’s Thomas van Tonder and Dominique D'Oliveiraperformed with distinction against fierce competition at Race#4 of the Jeep Warrior Series on 3 May, both securing 2nd place podium finishes in the respective Black Ops Elite men’s and women’s races.

Round 4 of the series was held for the first time at the Hakahana Trails in Gauteng, attracting a record-breaking field of elite athletes as the sport grows in popularity across South Africa.

Van Tonder finished just three seconds behind the Elite Men’s winner, Claude Eksteen, with Greg Avierinos in 3rd. Jeep Team’s Jay Jay Deysel finished 5th. Jetaime Ribbink claimed the Elite Women’s title with Hanneke Dannhauser in 3rd.

Said D'Oliveira: “The Jeep Warrior Race #4 proved to be yet another exciting event in the Black Ops Elite category with fast running and close finishes among the men and ladies. The standard of racing in the elite category is becoming increasingly competitive and we find ourselves training harder and racing faster for that top spot on the podium.”

The team’s trail runner, Claudia Richard, competed in the Commando Elite Warrior, taking an impressive win in the women’s race.

Other Jeep Team results:

Wings for Life World Run

Jeep Team’s celebrity athlete, Hlubi Mboya, faced a slightly different weekend challenge to her usual OCR events, competing in the phenomenal Wings for Life World Run in Cape Town to raise funds for research into finding a cure for spinal cord injury.

This unique event took place in 35 locations across the world, with each race starting at precisely the same time (11am GMT). The race has no finish line; instead runners are followed by a “Catcher Car”, with the eventual winner being the last person to be ‘caught’ by the car. Mboya clocked a distance of 15.94km before she was caught by the ‘catcher’, placing 16th in her category.

Paddling

On Sunday (3 May), Jeep Team’s multiple-world champion paddler, Hank McGregor, was in fine form in Durban at the Lion Of Africa Surf Challenge (Race#3 of the Bay Union Surfski Series), claiming his second title of the series. In 2nd place was Gene Prato, followed by Wade Krieger (3rd), Steve Woods (4th) and Jeep Team’s Barry Lewin in 5th.

Said McGregor, who is preparing for his title defence of the Molokai Surfski World Championships in Hawaii at the end of May: “It was great to see another nice turn out at the race and the conditions were just ideal; you could’ve even paddled your canoe out there! I’m busy preparing for a 50km plus race so it was more about testing myself and checking my speed than anything else, but it’s always nice to get a -win as well.”

Multisport

An action-packed long weekend for Jeep Team’s Michael Lord saw him win the Lite event at the Durbanville Triathlon in the Western Cape on Friday, and then place 2nd at the Walkerbay Extreme Triathlon in Hermanus on Sunday.

MTB

Jeep Team’s Dylan Rebello competed in Race#4 of the Western Province XCO Championship Series. Rebello fought fiercely against some of South Africa’s best riders for an impressive 3rd place finish in the Men’s Elite race, narrowly missing out on 2nd to Adriaan Louw.

On Friday, Pierre Smith raced the 70-km Winter Fast One MTB 2015 in Gauteng. Smith finished 22nd due to mechanical problems with his bike. On Saturday, he then placed 3rd in Race#2 of the 60-km Parys Island DirtMax MTB Series.