WTS Cape Town

[Batmanza]

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Javier Gomez may have claimed gold at the Cape Town leg of the World Triathlon Series but the golden boy on the day was Richard Murray who showed incredible character to grab 5th place.

 

Murray who was the highest ranked local for the event exited the swim a bit lower down than he had hoped while Henri Schoeman had a super fast swim shedding his wetsuit in 2nd place and Wian Sullwald mixing it up with the race favorites a few seconds back.

 

On to the bike and Richard Murray was stuck in the chase group that pushed hard to pull the lead group back but a super flat course saw the time gap remain around the one minute mark throughout the 8 laps.

 

Race favorites Gomez and Brownlee left T2 together as expected, immediately hit the front and ran together until around 7km where Gomez upped the pace leaving Brownlee behind.

 

Known for his run strength Richard Murray gave everything and passed nine athletes to finish in 5th place overall with a 10km run time of 30:07, finishing just over a minute behind Gomez.

 

Richard Murray‘s gutsy performance on the day was great to watch the spectacle of Gomez and Brownlee fighting it out on home soil was special.

 

It was awesome to watch the huge amount support from Capetonian’s and the cheering was deafening as spectators leapt to their feet on the grandstands each time a South African athlete passed through on their laps. The resounding roar as Richard Murray came through the finish will be something he will remember for a long time.

 

A great event to watch and seemingly very well organized; as for Cape Town….well she showed off to the world with a windless beautiful day that was perfect for triathlon.

 

1st Javier Gomez (ESP)

2nd Jonathan Brownlee (GBR)

3rd Dmitry Polyanskiy (RUS)

4th Mario Mola (ESP)

5th Richard Murry (RSA)

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15th Wina Sullwald (RSA)

17th Henri Schoeman (RSA)

44th Wikus Weber (RSA)

48th Eddie Van Heerden (RSA)