Week Three in Review: Africa

March 25, 2013

Jolene Raison

Open Workout 13.3 shook up the Africa Leaderboard.
 

Week three brought several changes to the Africa Leaderboard, but none were real surprises. One or two familiar favorites have dropped out of the top five and some strong contenders have risen to take their place.

Wilna Appel’s 251 reps made her the highest scoring lady on 13.3, and bumps her up fourth-place overall. Appel won the Open last year and placed second at Regionals. Mona Pretorius scored just one rep less than Appel on 13.3, and Lorinda van Loggerenberg ended up in third just a rep below Pretorius.

At the end of week three, Pretorius remains firmly at the top of the Women’s Leaderboard. Rika Deidericks is eight points below her in second place and newcomer Mary Jamieson is placed third. Jamieson’s strong presence in the top three is causing quite a stir considering she’s only been involved in the sport for about eight months.   

David Levey’s consistency shone again during week three. With a score of 269, he remains the man to beat. Richard Smith came in second with a respectable 264, and young Alpheus Ngwenya placed third with a rep less than Smith. Smith, who placed fifth at Regionals last year, is expected to prove a challenging competitor this season.

Ngwenya, of RTF CrossFit, placed third on both 13.2 and 13.3. However his 60th placement on 13.1 has him placed 66th going in to week four.

Carla Nunes da Costa is another newcomer to the Africa region to look out for. She placed ninth at the Europe Regional last year. Da Costa placed in the top five on 13.1 and 13.3, and 15th on 13.2. That leaves her hovering just out of the top five. She could still finish the Open in the top three, and is most certainly an athlete to look out for at Regionals.

With the top two spots dominated by perennial favorites and familiar faces, the question now is whether we’ll see any shake ups in the last two weeks of the Open.