SA star Schlebusch sets sights on Americas Triathlon Cup
Star SA triathlete Amber Schlebusch will refine her skills as she looks ahead to the Americas Triathlon Cup in St Peters, Missouri, next month.
Schlebusch ran her way onto the podium, picking up the silver medal, at the Old Mutual Wealth African Premier Cup in the Bay at the weekend.
The 22-year-old, who hails from Durban, studies at Arizona State University, where she races for the Sun Devils triathlon team.
Though she admitted to feeling slightly nervous ahead of Sunday’s race, there were no signs of that in her performance as she put in a solid run to claim the second spot after being behind the leading group in the early stages.
“I still prefer racing at the sprint distance, I just want to get that on the record, as it is a lot easier — the Olympic distance can be quite hard,” she joked after the race at Hobie Beach on Sunday.
“It was everything I wanted. “I didn’t even expect to be on the podium today, I just wanted to go as hard as I could.
“It was a beautiful day out and the support here in PE was nothing short of outstanding, and having my whole family here to watch me race was pretty special,” the two-time All-American team member said.
Schlebusch beat double Olympic medallist Katie Zaferes to the line in the America Cup in Sarasota at the beginning of this month.
She said she expected another tough race when the two go head to head in another Americas Cup triathlon event at the sprint distance in St Peters.
On her performance in Gqeberha, Schlebusch said she was pleased with how it went in her first outing at the distance.
“Growing up in Durban, I prefer ocean swims as opposed to open water swims.
“It wasn’t too choppy but definitely felt a little longer than my usual 750m swims in the sprint distance.
“There was one other athlete from Austria who was amazing on the bike and we* worked well together, and despite the gap continuing to grow between the lead and chase packs, it was all about adapting to the moment, going as hard as I could, and not letting the gap grow too big.
“On the run, I was comfortable until about 5km and then I was ready to be done, my legs were broken in the last 2.5km.
“I broke that last lap down into minutes to make things a bit easier,” she said.