songo.info

Songo.info rider profile: Thokozile Snono

dylan — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:20:06 +0000

Name: Thokozile Snono

Nickname: Thoko

Date of birth: 1996-08-16

Age: 14

School: A.F. Louw and Grade: 7

Where do you live: In Kayamandi

BMX Achievements: N/A

BMX Goals: To be a national champ!

Team: Songo.info

Sponsors:

When did you start riding BMX and who got you into it? In August 2009! I had my friends talking about it all the time and I went and joined.

Can you remember what your first race meeting was like and how you felt? Yes! It was in Kayelitsha on the 24-09! I was very excite and very nervous.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now? Racing as a professional!

Who inspires you to race and why? Sharlene! Seeing her race at that age gives me a big hope that I would make it as well.

How would you describe yourself? I am a self motivator!

What training do you to keep fit and in form? Running and riding on the track and many sit-ups.
What won’t you leave home without? My mom’s food!

What are your goals for the BMX season and the future? I want to win every race that I enter in.

What goes through your mind on the start line? To win the race!

Who would you like to meet and why? Sifiso! He had much bad luck in the races but he always come back very strong.

What does it take to become a top rider? Hard training; commitment; Team spirit; respect and listen to my coach.

What is your ultimate dream? Is to finish my studies and to be a world champ.

What do you do to relax? I stretch!

What is the best part of your day? School and training secessions!!!

What other talents do you have? Running!

What advice would you give to other girls wanting to start BMX? Just come and join it is much fun and you get to give the boys a ride of their money.

What music do you enjoy? RNB and House Music

If you were the president for a day, what changes would you make? I would build house for all the families of the kids from my BMX club.

What are you most proud of? My school work and when I did well in the race and when I beat the boys on the hard session.

What can’t you live without? My parents and BMX!

Hobbies? I like dancing!

Your favorite food? Meat!

Songo.info Rider Profiles: Zola Ngxakeni

dylan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:25:42 +0000

We will be doing a few riders profiles on the kids involved with the Songo.info project moving forward. First up is Zola Ngxakeni. Enjoy!

Date of birth: 1997-11-13

Age: 12

School: Cloetesville Primary and Grade: 6

Where do you live: Kayamandi

BMX Achievements: 2nd place on the Heritage Cup in Kayelitsha 2009 and 2nd place on the Canal walk cup in Kayelitsha

BMX Goals: To win the gold in Olympics one day

Team: Songo

Sponsors: N/A

When did you start riding BMX? In August 2008 and who got you into it? I was playing with my friend and I saw some kids in the track and went there and I joined them.

Can you remember what your first race meeting was like? Yes! How you felt? It was the opening of the Kayamandi BMX track and I raced with my friends and Sifiso Ntlapho I beat him and our picture was on the Sunday times. I know he let me but I was so happy!

Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now? I see my self a professional representing South Africa in Olympic and common world games.

Who inspires you to race and why? Sifiso is my inspiration! He comes from the Township just like me and gives me hope that I will also make it.

How would you describe yourself? As people’s person!

What training do you to keep fit and in form? Riding in the track and running.
What won’t you leave home without? TV

What are your goals for the BMX season and the future? Wining all the races including the nationals.

What goes through your mind on the start line? Wining the race!

Who would you like to meet and why? Christoph Sauser helped us to have the track!

What does it take to become a top rider? Train hard and lessoning to the coach!!

What is your ultimate dream? Is to be professional BMX rider!

What do you do to relax? Watch Television!

What is the best part of your day? Going to the track!

What other talents do you have? Running!

What advice would you give to others wanting to start BMX? That BMX is good for everyone and it will help you in everything.

If you were a superhero who would you be and why?

What music do you enjoy? Kwaito Music!

If you were the president for a day, what changes would you make? I would build house for everyone!

What are you most proud of? My school work!

What can’t you live without? I can’t live without BMX I love it.

Hobbies? Dancing

Your favourite food? I like African Salad

Xterra South Africa 2010

dylan — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:17:38 +0000

On Saturday the Songo.info team were in Grabouw to participate in the 2010 Xterra South African Championships. Race report by Songo Fipaza and official race images to follow shortly. Thank you to Michael Meyer and his team from Stillwater Sports for their support on the day.

We left Kayamandi at 19:00 on Friday and we made a stop at Pick’n Pay to get some food for the night.
The drive to Grabouw did not feel long as the kids we so happy and talking a lot on the taxi. We arrived at the Grabouw Country Club at 20:50 and offloaded our bikes and parked them in the medical tent. We then put up our tents, had dinner and all of us got to bed early as it was a long day coming up.

Our day started at 06:15 as we went to support the start of the trail run at 06:30. This was followed by breakfast and registration and all the kids were in good spirit and ready to have a goodtime. We had 10 international students from the University Stellenbosch swimming for us as part of the Songo.info teams. They arrived at 09:30 and had enough time to meet up with all their team mates for the day.

The 1.5km swim started at 11:00 and Deanna Price an American student was out first and she was in the top 20 and she tag Ndiphe. Kaitlin Kitchen also came out and tags Siphenathi and he was out on his mountain bike leg chasing Ndiphe. Melody Knight ; Carien Van Caam; Callie Cutler; JP Philipp they also came out following one other and Sipho was the 6th one to go from my kids and he was first to come back from my kids and tag Litha who went out as if he was running 100m. Litha ran 46 minutes for the 10km and that was a great team.

Sipho was followed by Thembisile; Ndiphe and Siphenathi on the Mountain bike leg. On the run it was Sandiso, Azukile who finished 10 minutes after Litha. The 3 girls ran very well and that was Daphne; Yolisw and Lavisa.

Odwa had some mechanical problems and he was out there for a long time and he was the last one from my group to come back and tag Elijah who ran 45 minutes for the 10km leg.

It was a great weekend for my kids and they all enjoy it very much.

Thank you very much to the following people who swim for us: Jay Philipp; Kaitlin Kitchen; Melody Knight; Deanna Price; Christina Hertner; Carien van Caam; Philip Gilman; Callie Cutler and Philipp Moehring.

Thank you very much to Mike Leslie from the ISOS for organizing transport for my swimmers.

Many thanks to Stillwater Sports for the entries we truly appreciate.

Thank you very much to all of our supports out there you’re truly making a difference in the lives of the children of Kayamandi.

Thank you,

Songo Fipaza

Xterra South Africa

dylan — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:35:06 +0000

This coming weekend 20 of our boys and girls from Songo.info will be taking part in the South African Xterra Championships held in Grabouw, Western Cape. This will be their second time at this event as members of different teams and look forward to bringing you some visuals and reports early next week.

Songo.info rides against TIK abuse in the Cape Town 99′er

dylan — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:20:01 +0000

This past weekend Songo got to take 5 of the boys with him to do a ride against drug abuse at the 12th Annual 99′er Cycle Race in Cape Town. The distance covered was 108km which was a new feat for some of the boys but a great indication of the progress that has been made in their fitness and ability. It was also the first outing for our awesome new bike trailer that has been provided by one of our new partners, Contego Asset Management.

Group Ride Images

dylan — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:02:52 +0000

Dutch Olympic BMX team visit Songo.info in Kayamandi

dylan — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:51:57 +0000

The Dutch BMX team were out in Stellenbosch for a two week training camp to escape the winter back home in Europe and we were fortunate enough to have them out in Kayamandi for a few hours this last weekend to give the kids a little bit of an exhibition as well as show some of the hard work that must happen in training to take you right to the top.

Head coach Bas de Bever started out by going through some of the basic stretching and strength workouts to get them warmed up…

…and then it was on to the track. The Songo riders split up in to groups and got some more individual input on getting out of the start blocks effectively, proper cornering and their favourite for the day…jumps!

The big laughs for the day came right at the end when one of the Dutch riders was prepared to lie down on one of the table tops and let a rider jump over him…they all wanted a shot at it but just one of the Songo boys pulled off a successful jump and that was the end of it.

Thanks again to Bas and his team for their time, enthusiasm and willingness to come and join us out at the track for the day. It was real inspiration for the Songo.info riders in being able to see first hand what levels can be reached in the future.

Teachers showing the kids how it is done on the BMX Track

dylan — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:37:35 +0000

This week two of the staff from Kayamandi High School came to join some of the kids at the track for some fun. Mrs Eunice Myataza was a teacher till August this year and according to Songo she will be joining the some of the easy rides to inspire women in Kayamandi to start getting more involved.

Mrs Victory Hani is the deputy principal of the school

Track Day in Kayamandi

dylan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:51:45 +0000

This last weekend we all joined up at the BMX track in Kayamandi for a bit of a fun/training day with the mountain bikers as well as BMX kids. There was an official race happening in Cape Town but Songo had decided that it would be better to spend the time training in preparation for the next league race in 2 weeks time. It’s not often that the mountain bikers come and ride on the track so there was much banter and good spirit as to who would be the fastest on the day.

Our first race for the day was picking the 5 fastest mountain bikers and putting them against the 5 fastest BMX guys in an elimination race. The one crossing the start/finish line last would be taken off the track each lap till there was just one left. The mountain bikers were allowed to start in the front as they were not used to much time on the track but it was evident within one lap who was on home turf.

The BMX boys were quick to move to the front and with 4 laps remaining there was only 1 mountain biker left making sure that they “showed who’s boss”. Next up were the juniors in similiar style racing but shortened to 5 laps as the Stellenbosch heat was turned up.

The aim of the day was to incorporate a little bit of cross training as well and Ndiphe come up with the idea of a BMX duathlon. The seniors would run 3 laps, cycle 5 laps and finish with a 2 lap run at the end. Once again it would be a mix of the BMX and mountain bike kids battling it out for bragging rights the following week.

"Rasta"and "Shorty" leading it out from the front

Transition

"Rasta" was the champ for the day!

Songo.info hosts its first BMX League event in Kayamandi.

dylan — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:06:11 +0000

This past Saturday Songo.info had the opportunity to host its first BMX League event at their home track in Kayamandi.

The three clubs taking part were Songo.info/Cycling4Kayamandi, Velokhaya and Mitchell’s Plain and there were about 60 riders taking part in the various age categoties as well as a couple of elite riders from the Stellenbosch are that came to join in the fun for the day.

Warming up and checking all the lines on the track

We were fortunate enough to have a two man start gate which gave the kids a bit of a feel as to what the top level riders racing is like. The kids throughout all the categories all had the chance to do a flying lap where there time was taken and were then paired up to race accordingly.

One of the Songo kids starting his timed lap

Even though the temperature guage was steadily going up and the wind and dust getting worse the racing continued at a fierce pace with all the kids trying not to get eliminated and go on to each following round. Add to this some friendly rivalry of doing your club proud and you could only imagine all the cheering and supporting from the sidelinesas as race after race took place!

At the end of a great days worth of racing there was a little exhibition from the local elite guys as well as the prize giving where Songo.info took some of the medals. The guys from the mountain bike club were out to support as well and I am happy to say that Sivuyile that crashed so badly at the Lourensford Classic has fully recovered and back in training!