[News] ATU African Sprint Cup to kick off Murray's triathlon season

[News bot]

On Sunday Richard Murray will get the opportunity to see just how much his swimming has improved when he lines up for the ATU African Sprint Cup at Blouberg.

 

Click here to view the article

[Mylolylo]

Does anyone know the results of this race?

[Snytjie]

Does anyone know the results of this race?

 

I didn't see the end as we were warming up, but Murray was still 2 min or so behind the front swimmers as was the case during the whole of 2013. In an Olympic race that translates to 5 min behind the likes of Gomez and the Brownlees, so not much chance for catching up...

[Snytjie]

Results:

 

http://www.triathlon...ican_cup/264835

 

So Murray outran them all in the end. He'll still have to up the swim if he wants to challenge the top ITU athletes.

[Dinamic]

I didn't see the end as we were warming up, but Murray was still 2 min or so behind the front swimmers as was the case during the whole of 2013. In an Olympic race that translates to 5 min behind the likes of Gomez and the Brownlees, so not much chance for catching up...

In all fairness at Worlds Richard was 45 sec of the Brownlees and in comparison Henri at worlds was in the front pack on the swim with ( without checking a similar time to Gomez and Brownlees

[Snytjie]

In all fairness at Worlds Richard was 45 sec of the Brownlees and in comparison Henri at worlds was in the front pack on the swim with ( without checking a similar time to Gomez and Brownlees

 

Hi,

 

Not sure I fully understand what you mean. Do you mean that Murray was 45s behind the Brownlees in London last year? And Schoeman was in front with them?

 

If so, Murray was a full minute behind Jonathan Brownlee. They had the same bike split (+Gomez), while Murray was then 50s slower on the run.

 

His deficit in my opinion is the one minute on the swim + the extra effort to try and catch up on the bike (and maybe letting go a little in the final stretch as he knows he's not going to catch them). If he exits the swim with them I think he'll give them some serious competition.

 

I don't see Henry running with the Brownlees, Gomez and/or Murray.

Edited February 17, 2014 by Snytjie

[Dinamic]

Hi,

 

Not sure I fully understand what you mean. Do you mean that Murray was 45s behind the Brownlees in London last year? And Schoeman was in front with them?

 

If so, Murray was a full minute behind Jonathan Brownlee. They had the same bike split (+Gomez), while Murray was then 50s slower on the run.

 

His deficit in my opinion is the one minute on the swim + the extra effort to try and catch up on the bike (and maybe letting go a little in the final stretch as he knows he's not going to catch them).

 

I don't see Henry running with the Brownlees, Gomez and/or Murray.

 

Times at London: Swim: Brownlee 17:10, Gomex 17:23 Henri Sch 17.13 Richard 18"09

Bike: Gomez 1:00:11; Brownlee 1:00:19, Henri 1"00:19 Richard 1:00:02

Run: Gomes 29:34, Brownlee 29:36, Henri 33:31 Richard 30:22

 

Henri was in the pack ahead of Richard and came of with the first bunch.

 

Richard would have been less than 45 sec off the last man in the first bunch, but even trying to close that much took some of the sting out of his legs ( relatively speaking)

 

The point I was trying to make is that RIchard is not the 5min behind on the swim that some people claim, he is much closer but infortuantely at this level any gap is a big handicap.

 

If Henri can continue to improve his run he has a big future.

[Snytjie]

I agree. If Richard can close that swim gap he will obviously stay with the leaders and seriously challenge for the win.

 

Do you think Henry can go sub-30 on the run?

[Dinamic]

10% improvement at this level is a big ask. But the lad has huge heart and I would like to see him do it.

[bolt67]

Gomez has asked 9 and (apparently paid for ) Henri to train with him up until Rio, he has just spent 3 weeks in Spain with Gomez doing heavy base and strength training. He will be basing himself in Europe with Gomez and his coach this year. I think he sees Henri as his way of ensuring that he has an ally on the bike against the Brownlees and Varga and to keep the gap on strong runners like Murray. Watch this space !

 

See link : http://www.in-vitu.com/2014/01/13/the-gomez-schoeman-alliance-a-big-change-for-2014/

[bolt67]

 

The Gomez-Schoeman Alliance > A Big Change For 2014?

 

January 13, 2014

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Tactics

Alexandre Saint-Jalm

 

The Brownlee domination is very often attributed to their physical ability. In reality, they undoubtedly have superior psychological skill in races. They have learned to lead the race from the gun and they brought inovation to the sport with their tactics and their vision of what the sport should look like.

In recent years, the Brownlees improved from good first pack swimmers to leaders amd we usually see them set the pace in order to challenge other opponents. Results, we have rarely seen athletes like Mario Mola or Richard Murray racing to their potential.

The reason

The team Brownlees had the intelligence to invite Varga train with them. The two brothers were able to learn from that experience as Varga was considered to be the the best swimmer on the circuit. Varga needed to improve his cycling and running and it was something that the Brownlees could help him with and he would help them with their swimming.

This collaboration was extended during races, since the Slovak ended up playing the role of domestique for the two brothers. Some speak of a fair return as Varga benefits from the Triathlon GB resources.

Since all national technical directors have understood this scheme, we had to react but the task is very complicated since it is very difficult to use this dynamic where two athletes from the same country use a domestic strategy because the result might affect their own funding (grants , sponsors, etc. ..) .

Gomez understood. He decided to go train with South African up and comer Henri Schoeman. He made a big splash on the WTS circuit 2013. Member of the famous club 8 (guaranteed ticket to get into the group head T2) , he is one of the best swimmers out there and his perfomance in Kitzbuhel proved he was also an amazing cyclist and possibly even stronger than the Spanish world champion.

If this alliance is real, what does Schoeman win?

Javier Gomez is very secret , we know practically nothing of his coach and his training mates are virtually nonexistent . Schoeman would have the chance to train and learn from the master while Gomez will have the opportunity to have a reference and a training partner for the first two legs of the race.

Presumably, Gomez has always been recognized as an excellent swimmer (he actually swims sub 16:00 for 1500m) and he knows that the future trend is to keep improving the level of swimming seen on the WTS circuit. He just wants to keep being a front pack swimmer.

One can also think that with Schoeman on his side , the Spanish will feel much less isolated. Without saying that Schoeman will become his servant, one might think that their interests are common and they will feel less alone before they all face the trio Brownlee and Varga .

And the rest?

Good question, in a way, one can wonder whether this alliance is not a prelude to a revolution in WTS or athletes will have agreements to help each other not only for training but also during races.

Somehow, because of the competition between athletes from the same nation, it is a system that is very difficult to implement. We’ll keep following this subject and we’ll take it into consideration while we analyse the races

[SwissVan]

Gomez has asked 9 and (apparently paid for ) Henri to train with him up until Rio, he has just spent 3 weeks in Spain with Gomez doing heavy base and strength training. He will be basing himself in Europe with Gomez and his coach this year. I think he sees Henri as his way of ensuring that he has an ally on the bike against the Brownlees and Varga and to keep the gap on strong runners like Murray. Watch this space !

 

See link : http://www.in-vitu.c...hange-for-2014/

 

Very interesting, thanks for that