The 28-year-old, who puts in a full eight hours every day at the office, received the award for Senior Athlete of the Year for 2016 at the annual awards function for the Nedbank Running Club in George (SWD).

 

Pieterse won the award for his consistently good performances throughout the year. He believes his best race was the Petro SA 21 km, in which he finished third. Some of South Africa's best half-marathon runners competed in the race.

Once Pieterse starts talking about his running exploits it quickly becomes clear that running is his true passion; to say he was born to run would not be an exaggeration. Every morning before going to work he goes for a run and in the evenings after work he is out on the road again.

 

'I need to keep on running, otherwise I tend to get irritated by little things. Running relaxes me. Sometimes while I run, I work through personal problems or find a solution.'

 

Pieterse is really passionate about youngsters taking up the sport, as he believes that the discipline they would learn from being runners would also serve them well in other parts of their lives.

 

'Through running you learn to set goals for yourself. To succeed you need to put in the long hard hours and that is applicable to everything you do in life. Youngsters should realise that the chance of succeeding the first time you set out to do something is slim. The challenge is to stick to your goal after you have failed. As they say, it is not about how often you fall but how often you get up that will determine whether you succeed.'

 

Godwin Heyns, who seems to have a sort of 'timeshare scheme' for standing on the podiums at most races in the Southern Cape, deservedly received the award for Junior Athlete of the Year. Hardly a weekend goes by in which he does not race to a top-three finish.

 

Some of the other athletes who were honoured are:
• Bradley Carelse (Walker of the Year)
• Luther Blaauw (Development Runner of the Year and Cross Country Runner of the Year)
• Johan Keuler (Great Grand Master Men's Runner of the Year)
• Anel van Wyk (Comrades and Two Oceans Runner of the Year, Sub-veteran Runner of the Year).
• Annatjie Botes (Cross Country Runner of the Year and Master Runner of the Year)
• Eddie Mouton (Most Races and Comrades Runner of the Year)
• Cielie Siegers (Great Grand Master Women's Athlete of the Year)
• Brittney-Ann Meyer (Junior Women's Runner of the Year)

 

As far as the weekend's racing is concerned the Nedbank Running Club athletes across the country performed well.

Lungile Gongqa finished second in the Cape Peninsula 21 km in a time of 1:12:47. Bulelwa Simae was second in the women's race in a time of 1:29:42.

 

Delani Mknize raced to a third-place finish at the Zabalaza Half Marathon in Cato Ridge. His time was 1:13:34.

Loveness Madziva won the Nongoma 28 km race in 1:57:40. Simphiwe Ndlela was third in the men's race, clocking a time of 1:39:04.

 

Charles Soza finished third in the Bestmed Tuks 21 km in a time of 1:08:12. In the men's 10 km race Precious Mashele battled it out to a second-place finish. His time was 30:03.

 

Rutendo Nyahora won the SPAR Irene Lantern 10 km Race in a time of 36:24.