By Esther de Villiers
The annual Outeniqua Chair Challenge (OCC) – a wheelchair race exclusively for disabled athletes – was hosted on Saturday 24 February in glorious Southern Cape weather, with the vibrant racing village at Carpe Diem School at the heart of activities.
Serious athletes competed in categories including paraplegic and quadriplegic, with subcategories catering for the type of chair used: ordinary wheelchairs, racing chairs, hand cycles and basketball chairs.
An official opening ceremony was held on Friday night, and by 7am the next morning, the starting siren sounded for the 42km marathon. This was followed by a 21km half-marathon, a 10km race, and a fun event in which wheelchair users of all ages were pushed for the length of the 5km course.
Entrants across the classes featured a mix of South Africans from all corners of the country and athletes from Ghana, Zimbabwe and Botswana.
Unmissable in their bright national colours was the small contingent of Ghanaians, representing the country of soccer’s famous Black Stars. Taking first and second place in the 42km racing-cycle category were Accra-based athletes Botsyo Nkegbe and Mclean Dzidzienyo.
SA’s youngest hand-cyclist Zack Legward won the junior class 21km race in 58:48; Zim lady racer Moleen “Molly” Majoni took top honours in the 21km senior female class; Samantha Hendricks won the 10km paraplegic race in her basketball chair, and Peter Sampson clinched the male division at this distance in an excellent 48:59.
By now part of the OCC furniture is top hand cyclist Stuart McCreadie, who shaved a dozen minutes off his 2023 time in the 42km paraplegic division (1:12:57). He was followed by the day’s most senior competitor: 67-year-old Peter West showed the back of his hand cycle to a throng of younger athletes.
Another OCC insider, Shaun Butler – also an internationally-awarded bodybuilder, and chairman of the Disabled Road-Race Foundation – won the overall prize in the 10km race in his hand cycle (55:01).
The 42km marathon quadriplegic class was again nabbed by Gauteng-based racing legend Pieter du Preez (01:52:23). The Pretoria native is famous for having won gold in the 2020 Paralympics in Japan, and as the first quadriplegic on the planet to complete a full Ironman.
The OCC is the only race on the continent that caters solely for wheelchair users. This year was its 20th anniversary.
Pictured above: Ghanaian racing star Botsyo Nkegbe in action.
Image source: OCC Facebook
