2007 Winner
Jesse Voza
The first Hell's Gate Challenge was held on Saba in 2003, a grueling triathlon that takes you from Well's Bay to the base of the Sandy Cruz trail, through an elevation of 1500ft.
In 2007 the committee of the Saba Triathlon Foundation has organized the fifth Saba Hellsgate Traithlon.
Thirty- eight racers participated in this fifth triathlon of Saba, among which one youth and six adult teams. Seventeen athletes did the whole race. The youngest participant was Hylke van de Velde of ten. The oldest participants were fifty-two.
Hylke half-way
The event was a great success, no one got lost and only one wound was bandaged by the Red Cross, but that was a little supporter who fell on the road.
Assistance from Red Cross
A lot of the racers arrived already on Friday morning with the Edge where they were welcomed by the Triathlon committee, Heleen Cornet, Len Swiersta and Shelley Lundvall. The bikes were transported by Lancelot in the truck of Public works. Frits Bus took the job of Lancelot as the Public Truck driver after his arrival.
Athletes arrive on the Edge-II
Lancelot, the bus driver
Soon bikers and hikers were spotted everywhere on the island practicing for the great event. The beach was visited and it looked like it that enough sand was coming back to start again from Wells Bay. There was an alternative plan but the weather stayed calm and on Sunday morning there was a nice sandy beach with long waves rolling in.
The beach at Wells Bay
After the arrival of the second group on Saturday the briefing was at six p.m. at Child Focus. Menno welcomed everyone and Jan den Dulk of the Saba Marine Park explained how the trail was set out. He also explained how the swimm was organized with a kayak in the water and a boat (with white roof) of the marine park to assist in case of an emergency and doubling as buoy. Heleen mentioned that she had put nice bold white arrows on the roads but not any further than the police station as she was ordered there to stop decorating the road. After a nice pasta dinner served on our new (recycle) plates everybody went happy to the hotels with a condom from theAids Support Group Saba in the information bag. By the way it was Aids Day and everybody wore the nice t-shirts for this occasion.
Participants in Aids Day t-shirt.
The Red Cross group was fully prepared and it was explained where they would be located along the track. James Johnson had cleared the Bottom-Mountain Trail and Public Works had cleaned the roads and hung the banners.
Loading bikes at Mt. Road.
The second of December started bright and early buy there was some rain and it was cold at six in the morning. Menno called from Wells Bay that the beach was still fine so everybody came together at the end of the Mountain Road to load the bikes on the trucks and to take a seat in Wayne’s VIP buss or in one of the school busses. After a quick breakfast, some coffee and a sandwich, the whole group was transported from the hotels to Wells Bay. The swimmers were marked with black markers on the arm and leg. The start sign was given by president Menno and everybody ran into the roaring ocean to get as fast as possible to the boat buoys and back.
Swimmer coming out of the water
Roman Layour was the first swimmer to come out of the water after 12 minutes and 40 seconds! The teams switched and the singles went as wet as they were on their bikes up to Rendez-Vous at the beginning of the Mt. Scenery Trail. The first part involved a lot of walking instead of biking but going down was easy and speedy!
Bikers.
At the end of the Mt. Scenery Road (the fastest biker was Jesse in 39 minutes and 14 seconds) the bikes were stalled and the running shoes were put on. Here started the run through Saba’s jungle along the well maintained trails to the end of the Sandy Cruz Trail at Hells Gate where the racers could be seen popping up from behind the tree ferns and elephant ears. A cheering crowd was waiting to welcome the athletes with power drinks, trail mix and some fruit.
Cheering crowd.
School busses were already waiting again to take all interested back to the Ecolodge for a well deserved barbeque and the hot tub.
First prize winner for the fifth time was Jesse Voza, who made an amazing time of 1:41:46. Terry de Witt was again the winner of the Female Adults.
You can find all the results here on our website. Click here for results.Download Results - Overall (2007)
Download Results - per category (2007)Download Results (2006)
Download Results (2005)
After the delicious barbeque the prizes; nice artwork and locally made artfully inscripted ceramic cups were handed out by Acting Lt. Governor Mr. Jonathan Johnson. Jonathan promised to participate next year too. He was already wearing the right shoes.
Jonathan
The Winners of 2007.
The ENNIA Saba Hell’s Gate Triathlon ended with a thank you to all the participants, time keepers and Sponsors. A Winair ticket was given to Susy Piscione to thank her for all the help from Tri-Sport, St. Maarten. The bikes were transported back to the Edge and all the participants promised the committee was that they would be there again for the ENNIA Saba Hellsgate Triathlon 2008.
Farewell
The Saba Triathlon Foundation presents next years event as:
ENNIA, Saba Hell’s Gate Triathlon, 2008.
To be held as the start of the Saba Day Week, Sunday, November 30. 2008What’s involved? Subscribe !!!!
Add: Participation fee: Single: $35. Team: $60. Youth team, age 16 and younger: free.Don't hesitate to get in touch to find out more Contact.
The story of the 2006 Triathlon can be found here.
