By Mark Etheridge
Team South Africa’s two male Rio Olympic athletes are off on their travels again and this time it’s destination Down Under.
Both Richard Murray and Henri Schoeman took part in the Middle East last weekend. Murray is up and running this season and had a World Cup win (Cape Town) and a fifth spot in the Abu Dhabi WTS last weekend. Schoeman wasn’t as fortunate, despite placing 10th and had to be hospitalised after his event. He weakened noticeably in the final stages.
Now the two are scheduled to compete in the lucrative Super League Series in Australia.
Murray says the first WTS event of the season is always something of an eye-opener, in more ways than one, as he got to experience it in the fast lane by driving a super car around the circuit.
‘Yeah, it was a pretty tough day. I raced the Xterra the weekend before, so the body was still sore. But I had some good physio and massage.
‘It’s an interesting concept for a triathlon with it being based around the Formula One grand prix track, first time ever on such a track I think.
‘My swim was pretty shoddy, in fact it was just bad. It was pretty rough out there and of course the first WTS distance race is always a shock to the system.
‘Going into the bike I had a lot of ground to make up… so I put the head down and closed a small gap to Javier Gomez and Fernando Alarza of Spain just after the first of 10 laps on the bike. I was feeling positive though and good on the bike with 45sec to the lead group, but then on the last lap the gap blew out to about a minute and 10sec, which is a bit of a death penalty.
‘On the run I wasn’t sure just how my body would feel and I started a bit slowly, but Portugal’s Joao Pereira and Fernando started pushing the pace. After the first lap we dropped Mario and a couple of other guys who were with us. We managed to close the gap to about five guys just ahead of us. So I actually feel pretty stoked with fifth.. after having raced the week before.
‘So that’s three done now and the next one is Super League Series at Hamilton Island.’
The Super League series is spread over three days of competition and pits Ironmen and ITU experts against each other.
Prize money at the event, which will be raced in the scenic Grand Barrier Reef location, is substantial and the top 10 finishers are rewarded. Main prize is US$100,000, second and third get $50,000 and $25,000 and 10th-placed finisher earns $2,500.