It was ecstasy and agony for top Namibian MTB rider Roger Suren at the UCI MTB World Championships in Val di Sole, Italy, over the weekend.
On Thursday he finished 11th overall against the world’s best u23 riders in the men’s XCO short track race but on Sunday he broke his collarbone after a crash in the XCO Olympic race and had to abandon the race.
Riding against 50 of the world’s best u23 riders in the short track race on Thursday, Suren completed the course in a time of 21 minutes and 18 seconds, which was just 24 seconds behind the winner, Nicolas Halter of Switzerland, while Paul Schehl of Germany came second and Rens Teunissen van Manen of The Netherlands third.
Suren, who is still only 18 years old, was the first African to finish the race, with the only other African rider in the field, Massimiliano Ambrosi of South Africa, finishing 20th overall.
Namibia’s national coach Hans du Toit says it was a great performance.
“This is by far his best performance of the year on the short track – his position is really good, so he’s very happy with that. It was against a world class field at the world championships and it’s something he can be very proud of,” he says.
“It’s his first year in the u23 category so he can still compete for another three years there and I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do in the next three years in this category,” he adds.
“He started okay but I think on the first lap there were a few issues and then he moved back to 29th position. But from there on he worked his way back up to 11th position, which is very difficult on the short track so it was a very good and gritty performance by Roger,” he says.
On Sunday, however, Suren crashed shortly after the start of the XCO Olympic race and had to be taken to hospital after breaking his collarbone.
Du Toit accompanied him and later confirmed that Suren had broken his collarbone on the Namibian cycling support Whattsap group.
“The x-ray results are back and unfortunately Roger had a clean break of his left collarbone. He will now be flying back to Belgium for further treatment and recovery,” he says.
Meanwhile, several other young Namibian cyclists also competed in the short track race on Thursday. In the junior men’s race Marco Thiel came 36th and Christiaan van der Westhuizen 81st, while Sean Lowe had to withdraw, while Rosemarie Thiel came 64th in the junior women’s race.
Du Toit says it was good performances under the conditions.
“It was Marco Thiel’s first race in Europe and unfortunately he hasn’t been exposed to this level of racing before. It was definitely the hardest race you can get into – there were 115 starters which was the biggest field at the world champs and he finished in a creditable 36th place,” he says.
“He was riding against five South Africans in the field and was still the first African cyclist over the line, so as the reigning African champion he was again the top performer from the continent,” he adds.
“Sean Lowe unfortunately hit a rock rock on the downhill and punctured his back tyre – so he had to run in. We managed to fix it but he had to withdraw after the end of the third lap,” he says.
“Christiaan van der Westhuizen came 81st which is a very good performance by him – he was the second of the Namibian cyclists and third of the nine African cyclists in the field,” he adds.
Du Toit thanks the Davin Trust, the Namibia National Olympic Committee, the Namibia Cycling Federation and Rock & Rut MTB Club for their financial support.
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