History

New Balance Multisport Club started from humble beginnings in June 2004 and was originally known as Harmony Cycle Club. At that stage there was already a Harmony Running club in Bellville. We started independently of the running club though, and following discussions with Nick Bester, who was the Harmony Mines National Sports Administrator, Harmony Cycle Club was started. The founder members of Harmony Cycle Club were Jasper Coetzee, Chris Theunissen and Clive Idas. The first committee comprised Jasper Coetzee, Chris Theunissen, Clive Idas, Juan van der Westhuizen and Kindy Theunissen. The club grew well over the four years that it existed to two hundred members and managed to gain some professional cycle teams such as the Daikin team.

Over the years and since starting the Harmony Cycle Club, Jasper identified that there was a great rapport between runners and cyclists. During early 2008 he attended a sports event and the idea of creating a multisport club which hosted various disciplines under one umbrella was conceptualised. The original idea was to have a physical presence, but also to create a virtual presence for athletes that wanted to achieve a sense of belonging, despite not actively participating in structured events. He then approached Gary van Rooyen of New Balance to discuss the concept, and Jasper was eventually given permission to start a New Balance Multisport Club. Jasper again met with Chris Theunissen and Clive Idas, and it was decided at that point to change our existing Harmony Cycle Club to that of New Balance Multisport Club in order to retain the funds in our banking account from the cycling club and for continuity purposes. The New Balance Multisport Club was founded in June 2008 and was formalised at its first Annual General Meeting in late August 2008. As far as we know, New Balance Multisport Club was the first Multisport club in the world, and we have, since starting the club had numerous approaches from all over the world by clubs wanting to understand how the concept works. The club initially started with around two hundred members and grew over the next 5 years to around 1500 members, covering sporting disciplines such as running, walking, triathlon and cycling. We also started a development section which subsidised high performance under-privileged athletes, with the assistance of New Balance. Of interest is that the membership database of 1500 athletes were manually controlled on an excel spreadsheet and each year the spreadsheet had to be redone with the fresh information of each athlete. An enormous task!

It was during the 2012 era that our athletes, always highly visible in their red kit at events or on training rides or runs became known as the red army. Cornel Botha originally coined this phrase. He was the cycling captain at the time.

Mention needs to be made of the Eden arm of Cape Multisport Club that have been great ambassadors and a branch of ours since 2009 when we were still known as New Balance Multisport Club.

During 2013, New Balance International in the United States picked up that our club’s website used a New Balance domain and branding, and we were respectfully requested to transfer ownership of the domain back to New Balance. Limitations were also placed on us as far as using their branding went in order to protect their interests. New Balance at that stage also changed their strategy to focus only on international and provincial sponsorships, a substantial change from the sponsorship of smaller clubs scattered around the world until then. It must be said that our relationship with New Balance stayed particularly good throughout the transition and significant amounts of stock continued to be allocated as sponsorships to us as a club, even following the change.

Following the above changes, we opted as a club to change our name and create our own identity, and the club’s name was changed to Cape Multisport Club.

It has not been possible in the setting out of the history above to give credit to the backbone of the club. These are the people that moved on and off the management roles, coaching roles, and discipline captaincy roles over time and since inception of the club in 2004. These folk are now still, and always have been the lifeblood of the club, offering enormous personal sacrifices of both time and effort to keep the membership happy and focussed on their training and safety. To them, for their sacrifices, we as members past and present say a massive Thank You!

Some of the National and International athletes that have previously been members of our club include:

Richard Murray

Murray won the Junior ITU Duathlon World Championships in 2007 and 2008, entered the adult Tri in 2009, and was the Under-23 African champion in both triathlon and duathlon in 2010, and was the elite African triathlon champion in 2011 and 2012.

Ashley Moolman-Pasio

Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio is a South African professional female road bicycle racer, who currently rides for UCI Women's World Team SD Worx. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the Women's road race, finishing 16th and in the Women's time trial finishing 24th.

Martin Dreyer

Martin Dreyer is best known for his seven Dusi Canoe Marathon wins.

Elmarie Coetzee

Represented South Africa at the World Masters Games in the 5000m, 1500m and the 4 x 100m relay events. The relay team won a bronze medal. Elmarie is also the current Western Province 5000m ladies record holder.

Hank McGregor

Hank McGregor is a South African marathon canoeist and surf ski racer. He has won eleven gold medals at the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships.

Daikin Professional Cycling team

Winners of numerous cycling races

Sheryl de Lange

She was a top performer for more than 20 years, winning a number of Western Province titles in road running and cross country as well as representing the province at national championships on many occasions.