South Africa take top two spots on home soil in Cape Town
There was a certain similarity in the women’s race, where the Great Britain team repeated it’s Gold and Silver from 12 months ago at the Cape Town ITU Triathlon World Cup today, albeit with different athletes. The men’s race provided an even more familiar story.
While South Africa couldn’t repeat it’s podium sweep from 12 months ago in the men’s race, the top two positions were unchanged, with Richard Murray and Henri Schoeman filling the top two steps of the podium once again.
In typical style, Schoeman lead the way in the swim, eight seconds clear as he reached dry land, but with pretty much the entire field in a long line behind him. The early part of the ride would see the pack split however.
Long train running! Its still Van der Stel (NED) out front but the 11 front riders are being chased hard by @gsheldon23 and co after two laps #CapetownWC pic.twitter.com/fy9Ug3FziV
— TriathlonLIVE (@triathlonlive) February 11, 2018
A group of 11 would start the run in close order, with a 20 second lead over the chasers. With Richard Murray part of that 11, he was the clear favourite to retain his title – and was not going to spoil the script. A 14:25 run split was the fastest of the day, resulting in a relatively comfortable margin of victory.
Great Britain’s Grant Sheldon got himself into a top-10 position (ninth), courtesy of the second best run split of the day, 14:37.
Good to come out on top here in @CapeTown @Triathlon_CT 👌
Happy to announce I will be in @orca_triathlon till 2020 . pic.twitter.com/Tvf0UiDV2c
— Richard Murray (@RD_murray) February 11, 2018
Cape Town ITU Triathlon World Cup – Sunday 11th February 2018
750m / 20km / 5km
MEN
1st – Richard Murray (RSA) – 52:15
2nd – Henri Schoeman (RSA) – 52:39
3rd – Lukas Pertl (AUT) – 52:49
4rd – Shachar Sagiv (ISR) – 53:02
5th – Lukas Hollaus (AUT) – 53:08
6th – Marco Van Der Stel (BEL) – 53:09
7th – Roberto Sanchez Mantecon (ESP) – 53:12
8th – Valentin Wernz (GER) – 53:13
9th – Grant Sheldon (GBR) – 53:14
10th – Bob Haller (LUX) – 53:20
19th – Calum Johnson (GBR) – 53:53