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Super League Day One: Murray leads, Brownlee (almost) last…

Richard Murray and Richard Varga excel on day one of Super League Triathlon - while Alistair Brownlee suffers at the "pain in paradise" race
Chief Correspondent
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Super League Triathlon explodes into action on Hamilton Island

  • Swim-Bike-Run
  • Run-Bike-Swim
  • Bike-Swim-Run

Three races, just ten minutes apart and three different winners. Day One of Super League Triathlon and the ‘Triple Mix‘ delivered on the pre-race promise of changing the dynamics and showcasing different skills and strengths. Each race comprised a 300m swim / 6km bike / 2km run – with the race order different every time. This was T20 cricket or Nitro Athletics applied to triathlon.

And as for the (live) online coverage on www.superleaguetriathlon.com – from the moment it launched, I thought to myself “wow, these guys have thrown some serious money, knowledge and resources at this”. Fantastic. To do that, almost faultlessly first time out… it was incredible work by the production team and everyone involved. The Super League Triathlon team made some big, BIG, noises about this beforehand… fair play, that was impressive.

Results (in brief – to be updated)

Top three in race one (S/B/R): Jake Birtwhistle (AUS), Mario Mola (ESP), Richard Murray (RSA)
Top three in race two (R/B/S): Richard Varga (SVK), Andrea Salvisberg (SUI), Igor Polyanskiy (RUS)
Top three in race three (B/S/R): Richard Murray (RSA), Richard Varga (SVK), Ryan Bailie (AUS)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JefgDVIaOU

Overall standings day one: 1st Richard Murray (RSA), 2nd Richard Varga (SVK), 3rd Ryan Bailie (AUS)

And Alistair Brownlee? Way, way back… “I felt extra specially bad today he said” immediately after race three. As for his chances of a big recovery on day two? “I wouldn’t put money on me!”.

Alistair Brownlee grimaces with the hard-charging peloton (Delly Carr)
Alistair Brownlee grimaces with the hard-charging peloton (Delly Carr)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3osRmJ4KGM

Things you don’t normally see?

  • Alistair Brownlee dropped on the bike (race 2)
  • Alistair Brownlee lapped on the run (race 3)
  • Javier Gomez off the podium in three consecutive races
  • An (almost…) universally positive Twitter feed involved in the race
  • In-race sprints for bonus seconds (Ben Shaw / Jake Birtwhistle in race two!)

Post-race winner interviews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpngtdz7ju4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybibyPsSTYs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIS3c2dlqpM

John Levison
Written by
John Levison
TRI247's Chief Correspondent, John has been involved in triathlon for well over 30 years, 15 of those writing on these pages, whilst he can also be found commentating for events across the UK.
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