Murray dashes to second win
SOUTH African Richard Murray chased down the leaders to win his second straight Discovery Triathlon World Cup event in Cape Town yesterday.
Olympic bronze medallist Henri Schoeman was second for the second year in a row, but he had been first out of the water after the 750m swim leg of this sprint triathlon, 17 seconds ahead of 11th-placed Murray.
And that is where Murray is always dangerous, attacking the field with a push that normally does not end until the finish line.
Just 4.5km into the cycle stage Murray was in the lead group of 11 with Schoeman.
That is how they finished after the 20km ride, and Murray and Schoeman quickly lost the group in the 5km run.
Murray was in his element and he was too strong, even for Schoeman, pushing away to finish with a cushion of 24 seconds.
Lukas Pertl of Austria was third, 10 seconds behind Schoeman.
In the women’s race, Simone Ackermann – the former East London girl who emigrated with her parents and sister to New Zealand 15 years ago before switching allegiance back to South Africa – achieved her best World Cup finish to date as she finished fourth behind a powerful trio.
Briton Vicky Holland, the 2016 Olympic bronze medallist, won in 58min 18sec, ahead of compatriot Non Standford, the 2013 world champion, who was 34 seconds behind.
Zsanett Bragmayer of Hungary, with 11 podium finishes in 69 career starts, was third in 59:07, and the South African with a Kiwi accent a further 21 seconds behind.
“On the bike, the three girls in the front were really aggressive, and I think that’s what really got us away – so I just tried to hang on,” Ackermann said.
“My goal was sort of to have a good swim and bike ride, so I wasn’t too worried about the run. A podium finish would have been nice, but this early on in the season I’ll take a fourth.”
Ackermann, seventh out of the swim and credited with the second-fastest cycling time, was 10 seconds ahead of fifth-placed Juri Ide of Japan.
Anel Radford was the second South African home, in 14th position, and Ackermann’s Commonwealth Games teammate, Gillian Sanders, ended a tame 18th after a swim she would rather forget after struggling with a technical issue.
Ackermann said her focus at the Games in Australia in April would be the team relay event, where she and Sanders will team up with Murray and Schoeman.
“We have such a strong team I think we’d be silly not to aim for a medal there, even a gold. I think we can do something quite special there.”