Country loses iconic sports legend

Wednesday’s fatal collision that killed Namibia’s iconic former rugby captain Gerhard Mans once again shines the spotlight on the life-threatening dangers facing cyclists in particular on the B1 main road – a topic that previously made headlines following other equally tragic deaths and close encounters.Words fail to truly do justice to the sporting stature of Gerhard Mans, who died shortly before 10:00 on Sunday morning in a tragic collision with a motorist while he was on a bicycle ride on the Western Bypass near the Elisenheim bridge.Just 15 days after his 60th birthday on April 19, Mans died on impact when he was hit by a white BMW sedan vehicle with no number plates and no licence disc.The driver was arrested at the scene, as his vehicle’s shattered windshield bore testament to the deadly impact of the collision.Although Mans was not close to other cyclists at the fateful moment, the information at the scene indicated that the car driver who hit him from behind had been talking on his cellphone. The resulting shock wave has continued to reverberate through the Namibian and South African rugby and cycling communities.Exceptional talentMans was without doubt one of the most influential rugby players and captains the country has ever produced. Playing as a right wing, a significant part of his career before independence in 1990 was limited by South Africa’s sporting isolation, but his performance record made him one of the country’s world-class players.Under Mans’s captaincy, Namibia won two home tests each against Ireland and Italy in 1991 – a few months before the same Irish side reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup later that year.Between 1990 and his last international appearance in 1994, Mans scored 26 tries in 27 Tests – which stood as the national record until 2018 when Chrysander Botha first equalised and then surpassed the total in his 55th Test with two tries against Kenya.After his high school days at Wennie du Plessis at Gobabis, Mans went to study in Bloemfontein and also played for the Free State from 1982 to 1984 and with 19 tries in 24 matches gave an indication of how valuable he would later become to his native country.His 54 tries in 80 provincial matches for South West Africa spurred a systematic rise from the Sport Pienaar and Currie Cup B divisions – before the golden year of 1988, when he captained the SWA team to the third position in the highly competitive Currie Cup.Epic victories against Western Province at a rain-soaked Newlands in Cape Town (24-21), against Transvaal at Ellispark (25-22), against Danie Gerber’s OP team (twice), Natal and the Free State made opponents quite nervous about any meeting against the traditional underdog side. At Loftus Versfeld, Naas Botha’s Northern Transvaal survived a notoriously dirty encounter by just 18-16.As a ball carrier, Mans’s speed, power, and attacking instincts were a dangerous weapon in any team’s outfit, while his teammates would fearlessly follow wherever he went.Johan Zaayman, a younger player who represented Namibia in his 1999 World Cup debut and now coaches Windhoek Affies, said: “What a shock. Gerhard was the reason for many of us to dream of greater things and to be like him. I can’t believe it, this is terrible news.”After his rugby days, Mans, an insurance broker at FNB Namibia, also became known as a cyclist in the older age groups. Among other things, he completed the Nedbank Desert Dash as a solo rider, despite a mechanical setback in the dark of night that forced him to cover several kilometres on foot pushing his bike before he could get assistance at the next technical point.With his eldest son Gerhard Junior (a former national time trial champion and member of the 2014 Commonwealth Games team) as a teammate, Mans also completed the gruelling eight-day Cape Epic in the Western Cape in 2018.Namibia Media Holdings conveys its heartfelt condolences to Gerhard Senior’s wife Sarie, sons Gerhard Junior and Wiann and the rest of the Mans family.

Country loses iconic sports legend

Comments

Namibian Sun 2024-11-22

Please login to leave a comment

Country loses iconic sports legend

Comments

Namibian Sun 2024-11-22

Please login to leave a comment

Login