Thousands join online oyster fest events
The first two sporting events of the 2020 Virtual Knysna Oyster Festival (VKOF) concluded on Sunday 28 June, after two days of exciting action that saw people from all over the world come together to catch a slice of the virtual pie.
The Oyster Fest is part of Knysna’s furniture by now, and along with it the Knysna Cycle Tour and Knysna Yacht Club Regatta, which have both become synonymous with the festival over the years.
Many would think it impossible for these events to be held virtually due to the tangible nature of the two respective sports, but according to festival coordinator Andrew Finn, the events were largely successful.
“We’ve had thousands of people go onto our social media platforms and watch these events live, we even had people taking part in the events all the way from England,” he said. “The outpour of positive support and feedback has been immense, and so encouraging too.”
Finn noted further that the cycle tour’s Zwift races notched up an accumulative total of “six or seven thousand” viewers on Facebook, while the regatta brought out “four or five thousand” viewers. “This surprised me a bit, I certainly did not expect it to do this well.”
The first event was the KCT’s mountain bike race on Zwift on Saturday (27 June) morning and saw participants take on a short race (22km) and a long race (30km) as they battled it out to see who could ride the fastest lap. In the short MTB race, Julia le Roux was the women’s winner while Johan Swanepoel took the men’s title. In the long MTB race, Neville Menezes won the men’s crown and Marlene Lourens was the top woman.
The virtual Knysna Yacht Club Regatta was a success too, and here Andrew Lewis crosses the line as winner in the J70 monohull final. Photo: Facebook
The road race was up next, with riders again taking on two distances – 22km and 44km. These races took place on Sunday morning and here Menezes got his second title of the weekend with the men’s win in the short race while Dawn Lottering was the women’s winner.
In the long race, Graeme Mappings came up trumps in the men’s section while Marleen Lourens powered her way to a second win of the weekend too.
The cycling wasn’t done yet, however, and on Sunday afternoon time came for the KCT’s professional Zwift race. There were over 60 riders who participated coming from as far afield as Argentina, Germany, Great Britain, USA, Ireland, Chile, Kuwait, Malawi, Denmark, Israel and Puerto Rico. In the men’s A category, the race was won by Brad Gouveris, followed by Gary Muller and Travis Stedman.
In the men’s B category, Henk de Beer seized the top step followed by Justin Brouwer and Andre Visser. In the women’s category, Michelle Andrew finished ahead of Adette Boss (2nd) and Elne Owen (3rd). In the team’s category, ProTouch finished off in first place, followed by Office Guru Racing and Kinetic Pro Cycling.
A screenshot of the professional Zwift race hosted by the Knysna Cycle Tour, following winner Brad Gouveris. LEFT: A screenshot of the long MTB race hosted by the Knysna Cycle Tour, following winner Neville Menezes. Photos: Facebook
Before the professional Zwift race, the KYC had the honours of hosting its very first virtual regatta. The first heats of the regatta were held on Saturday afternoon, and through this, the semifinalists were determined and the races were set for Sunday. All played through the Virtual Regatta online platform, with racers taking part in two classes.
In the Nacra 17 class, it was Pedro de Mello Machado who came out on top while in the J70 monohull class it was Knysna local Andrew Lewis who took the top prize.
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Source: Knysna Plett Herald News