Mauritius, 19 December 2009: The Mauritius ITI African Cup marked the end of the ITU racing season and could hardly have been hosted at a more beautiful venue. This Indian Ocean Island boasts some of the most pristine beaches in the world and this together with the surrounding hills and soaring temperatures and humidity made this a worthwhile event on the calendar.

In the men’s event David Hauss (France) took the lead from the swim and exited the water almost 1 minute and 30 seconds ahead of the chase pack made up of Omar Tayara (Syria), Valerie De Falbaire (Mauritius), Ramon Edija (Spain) and Daniel Rodriguez (Spain).

The chase pack worked well together over the tough climbs on the course but could not make up any time on the hard working Hauss.

The run was challenging in the extreme heat and humidity but Hauss maintained his lead to the end winning from a fast finishing Wikus Weber who broke away from Rodriguez on the end of the second lap to take the second place finish with Rodriguez taking third.

The women’s race was dominated from start to finish by Mari Rabie (South Africa) in her first race back after the Beijing Olympics. She exited the water 1 minute and 40 seconds ahead of Fabienne St. Louis (Mauritius), Andrea Steyn (South Africa) and Riana De Lange (South Africa) and held this gap right through the bike and extended this lead on the run to finish a comfortable winner on the day. 

Andrea Steyn used her strong run to pull away from Fabienne St. Louis at the 2km mark and held on for a comfortable second place with Fabienne rounding out the podium on the day.

As the sun set on this beautiful venue the athletes were all in agreement that this beautiful Indian Ocean Island venue can become one of the favourites on the ITU circuit.