DURBAN – The second day of the 2017 African Continental Track Championships began with a moment of silence and respect for Egyptian cyclist Eslam Nasser Zaki at the Cyril Geoghegan Cycle Stadium in Durban on Human Right’s Day.
Riders and officials on the day wore black bands on their arms and flags were half-mast in honour of the cyclist who passed away on the first day of the championships. Zaki was riding in the Elite Men’s Omnium-Tempo race on Monday when he fell off his bicycle.
Zaki was attended to by medical personnel immediately, but after “prolonged attempts” to resuscitate him, the 22-year-old was declared dead on the scene. It was later confirmed the cyclist died of a heart attack.
His team-mate, Ebtissam Zayed lapped up the gold medals in both the Elite Women’s Individual Pursuit and Keirin event, and the silver medal in the Team Time Trial (also with Donia Rashwan) events as they held him close to their hearts.
Zayed claimed the gold medal in the Elite Women’s Individual Pursuit, with South Africa’s Charlene du Preez riding into the silver medal spot. Danielle van Niekerk - who won the pursuit over Absolute Motion’s Julie Lee - claimed bronze.
The Egyptian team celebrated another victory soon after when Zayed won the Elite Women’s Keirin Final ahead of South Africa’s Bernette Beyers in second and Strasse Panda Team’s Jennifer Abbot in third.
Rio Olympian Zayed then went on to win the silver medal in the Elite Women’s Team Sprint final with teammate Donia Rashwan.
Zayed mentioned that she was emotionally and physically tired. “We had so many events today because yesterday’s was cancelled, and it’s very hot as well, so it’s all made me very tired.”
Zayed said that her and teammate Rashwan were hoping very much for the gold medal in the Team Time Trial, but were happy to take the silver after two golds.
The final two races of the Elite Men’s Omnium event - Elimination and Points race - also took place in the morning session of the second day, and were won by Evan Carstens and Nolan Hoffman.
This contributed to Hoffman winning the overall gold medal for points accumulated in the Omnium events, with Carstens in second and Hendricks in third.
In the Junior Women’s Keirin event, Courtney Smith just pipped Jessica Brown with mere split seconds between them to take the gold meda.
Team South Africa dominated the Team Pursuit in the Elite Men’s category with Got It Global and Giant coming second and Future Stars Cycling Academy in third.
In the Elite Men’s Team Sprint, Team Giant took the honours ahead of Team South Africa in second and Seychelles in third.