Peschl Sports and the Kargo Pro Cycling Team is proud to announce that Alan Hatherly has been selected by SASCOC as one of 137 athletes to represent South Africa at the 2016 Olympic Games to be held from 5-21 August in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
Alan Hatherly of Kargo Pro MTB Team. Credit: Tyron Mackenzie.
20-year old Hatherly will be competing in the Pro Elite Men’s Cross Country Mountain Bike race on Sunday, 21 August 2016. Hatherly is currently ranked 10th U23 Men in the world and achieved a 17th position finish (U23 Men) in the recent UCI MTB World Championships in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
He is also currently in contention for the South African Men’s XCO Champion title at the SA MTB XCO Championships taking place at the Cascades MTB Park in Pietermaritzburg, KZN this weekend.
“This announcement is a huge milestone for cycling in South Africa, and particularly for the Kargo team,” says team founder and owner of Peschl Sports, Shaun Peschl. “As the first registered UCI team in South Africa, we have produced Provincial XCO Champions (Gauteng and KZN), South African XCO Champions (Junior, U23, Elite), African XCO Champions (U23) and now and after 5 years of hard work together with our team sponsor, Kargo, we have achieved our goal of delivering an Olympic athlete.”
“This is a tremendous milestone for us and, while the team will continue to compete in XCO, we will also direct our professionalism and expertise into developing South African Marathon Champions and qualifying for the UCI MTB World Marathon Championships, also with the goal of producing Cape Epic winners in both the male and female categories in the near future.
“Another important objective for 2017 is to sign a number of new ladies’ riders and to put a concerted effort into developing women’s cycling in South Africa, together with our equipment partner, Liv.”
“Qualifying for Rio is a dream come true for me,” says Alan. “With the support of my team and coach, I’ve worked really hard this year- being consistent is a huge factor, it takes a lot of discipline and patience to become an Olympic athlete. I’m looking forward to training and preparing over the next five weeks and I can’t believe I will be fortunate enough to experience and compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics.”
Shaun Peschl and Alan Hatherly at the 2nd KZN XCO Series race. Credit Tyron Mackenzie.
“Greg, Leigh, and the staff at Kargo National would like to congratulate Alan Hatherly on being chosen for the Olympics. This is an outstanding achievement and we are extremely proud that the hard work put into the Kargo Pro Cycling team by Shaun Peschl and all those involved has paid off with one of our own being chosen,” says Leigh Oliveira on behalf of Kargo National.
His family, who are his greatest support system – from his early years of cycling to encouraging him to pursue the sport professionally, is equally excited. “The announcement by SASCOC that Alan will be representing South Africa at the Olympic Games is one of the proudest moments for us as a family. Alan has always shown a potential to be great and this was one of his goals that he set out for himself many years ago, and we are proud as parents to have been alongside him all of the way seeing him grow into an outstanding athlete.”
“Alan has been nothing but a 100% athlete,” says coach John Wakefield of Science Sport. “We’ve been working very hard over the last few months, correcting small things to make a big difference later on, and it’s all come together now. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do at the Olympics.”
Alan Hatherly as a young rider.
“We would like to thank all our sponsors – Kargo, Giant, Shimano, Hoopers VW, RSA Web, Mavic, Continental, Adidas Eyewear, On the Go, Ciovita custom cycling apparel, High5 Sports Nutrition, Unior Tools, Squirt, and GO! Durban, for their tremendous ongoing support in making the team’s goals a reality. We would also like to thank Cycling South Africa and the Elite Athlete Development Programme (EADP) and KZN MTB for all their input and support of Alan and the team,” says Peschl.
Amanda Davis of Giant Bicycles has added her congratulations, saying, “Giant South Africa are immensely proud and excited to be part of Alan Hatherly’s Olympic selection for Rio 2016 through our Giant bicycle sponsorship of the Kargo team. He has had an excellent year of riding and we are excited that he achieved these results on his Giant Anthem Advanced 29er. Congratulations to Alan and we hope he has a fantastic experience in Rio – he is blasting a trail through South African mountain biking.”
“Super proud of the Kargo team, the team owner Shaun, and Alan,” says Greg Kemp, KZN representative for Shimano and Giant. “All the hard work from the rider and sponsors’ perspective has been worth it!”
We at Hoopers VW are proud to be associated with not one, but now another Olympic athlete in Alan Hatherly from the Kargo Pro Cycling Team. The directors and staff at Hoopers wish to congratulate him on his selection for the Rio 2016 Olympic SA Team and would like to wish him everything of the best in his endeavours in his chosen discipline of Mountainbiking. This is possibly just the start of things to come for this young man,” says Dave Johnson of Hoopers VW.
For more information visit http://www.peschlracing.com or contact Shaun Peschl: shaun@peschlracing.com.
For live updates and results follow the team on Twitter (@KARGOPROMTBTEAM) and Instagram (kargo_pro_cycling_team).
