Murray leads SA full house
WORLD CUP: DESPITE TIME PENALTY, MURRAY ROMPS IN
Henri Schoeman, Wian Sullwald claim silver and bronze.
Triathlete Richard Murray hopes South Africa’s podium sweep on Saturday will give the sport a boost and promote the multi-discipline code across the country.
Murray, the Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, overcame a time penalty to win the elite men’s contest at the season opening Discovery Triathlon World Cup race in the Mother City, with compatriots Henri Schoeman and Wian Sullwald finishing second and third respectively.
It was the first time South Africa has taken all three medals in a World Cup race.
“I hope this one-two-three will make a statement for triathlon in SA and this gets out there,” Murray said.
Despite having to stop for 10 seconds on the run leg after failing to put his cycling helmet in its designated box, Murray won convincingly in 51:33 over the sprint distance (750m swim, 20km cycle ride and 5km run).
“Our shoes are usually placed on the left of the box, but this time the shoes were inside so I threw the helmet aside, and I think it was a bit of a fault from the event organisers,” Murray said.
“I thought I might lose this one due to the penalty, which would have been sad, but I’m very happy with the way it ended up.”
Olympic bronze medallist Schoeman finished eight seconds off the pace, and former world junior champion Sullwald was a further 15 seconds behind.
“I messed up a bit at the transition into the run and I lost about five seconds putting on my helmet,” Schoeman said.
“Even though I knew Richard had a penalty, I was not able to close the gap because my legs just felt too dead.”
Schoeman was nonetheless satisfied with his first contest of the 2017 campaign.
“The first race of the season is always a bit of a shock to the system, and I felt a bit sluggish in getting the engine started,” he said.
“But I’m happy with my form at this stage and I think South Africa had a great day, so we can all go celebrate now.”
Britain’s Lucy Hall won the elite women’s race in 59:34, outsprinting compatriot Jessica Learmonth by less than a second, with Ai Ueda of Japan third.
Anel Radford was the first SA woman across the line, finishing 15th in 1:01:53.