Heroic Hahn stepped up when disaster struck

Andrew Poolman
  • 11 Months Ago 05 June 2023
With a fighting performance under pressure, 21-year-old Hugo Hahn delivered a vital boost to the Namibian Cycling Federation’s hopes of securing a place for a male mountain biker at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

The untimely flu and stomach ailment that took hold of Alex Miller prevented him from being at the starting line to defend his title at the African Mountain Bike Championship at Thaba Trials in Johannesburg on Saturday.

Miller, the 2022 continental men’s champion as well as a bronze medallist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, had been in great form lately.

His absence therefore puts the pressure fully on Hahn to ensure that no rider from any African country (apart from the South Africans) reaches the finish line of the six laps in Johannesburg before him.

Road to qualification

Hahn judged his pace very well, and although he finished sixth overall behind five South Africans, he systematically put more than six minutes between himself and the opposition from Lesotho, Mauritius and Tunisia.

Besides the points at stake for countries at the continental championship, the road to Olympic qualification based on world ranking points is much more costly and competitive.

Since the days of Mannie Heymans (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, and Beijing 2008), Marc Bassingthwaighte (London 2012), Michelle Vorster (Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Tokyo 2021) and Alex Miller (Tokyo 2021), Namibia has maintained a coveted presence at every Olympic Games in mountain biking.

Top performances

Another achiever in the Hahn household was his young brother Daniel, with an equally praiseworthy bronze medal in the junior men’s races at the African championship.

Daniel Hahn (third), Kevin Lowe (sixth), and Theuns van der Westhuizen (11th) were the leaders among the five Namibian under-18 competitors. The gold and silver were won by South Africa’s Ernest Roets and Massimiliano Ambrosi.

On Sunday morning, Hugo Hahn also finished fifth in Namibia’s first ever participation in the MTB short-course African championship for elite men (eight laps of 1 kilometre).