Veteran South African cyclist David Maree has set a challenging target for the men’s elite team at the African Continental Track Championships. Photo: Owen Lloyd
Veteran South African cyclist David Maree has set a challenging target for the men’s elite team at the African Continental Track Championships.
The 31-year-old wants gold in every race in Cairo, Egypt.
“Our goal for the track team would be to take gold in every event,” he confidently told In the Bunch.
“We have a very strong endurance team in particular so hopefully we can win multiple medals in each race.
“Who wins the actual gold remains to be seen.
“Steven van Heerden, Josh van Wyk and Kyle Swanepoel are all super strong athletes,” a modest Maree said without adding himself to the list of medal contenders.
Maree was South Africa’s standout rider at last year’s African championships where he won the points race as well as the omnium, silver in the scratch race and bronze in the team pursuit.
A confident-sounding Maree told In the Bunch that he’s in better shape 12 months later than he was at last year’s championships – and has one major goal this time around.
“This year the omnium is my big goal as it’s an Olympic event that I am hoping to qualify for (the SA team). Everything at the moment is leading up to Tokyo,” Maree confirmed.
Maree, who is the reigning SA omnium champion, added that he was excited to see what the team could achieve in the team pursuit in particular.
“We all race for the same team in South Africa (Enza) so know each other well.
“I think we can get very close to the SA record which was set at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia,” Maree added.
Maree and his teammates won’t have to wait long to get into team pursuit action with both the qualifying round and final scheduled for the opening day of the four-day event which runs from March 10 to 13.
South African elite men squad:
Endurance
David Maree
Josh van Wyk
Kyle Swanepoel
Steven van Heerden
Dillon Geary
Sprint
Jean Spies
Mitch Sparrow
Alexander Craddock
