South Africa dominated the Cape Town leg of the International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Cup on Saturday with a clean sweep of the men’s podium.
Richard Murray took gold in a time of 51 minutes 33 seconds, followed by countrymen Henri Schoeman (51:41) and Wian Sullward (51:56).
The lead pack was tightly contested after the first swimming leg, and little changed on the cycling segment despite Murray picking up a time penalty at the second transition.
“Our shoes are usually placed on the left of the box, but this time the shoes were inside the box, so I just threw the helmet aside, and I think it was a bit of a fault from the event organisers,” Murray said.
“I thought I might lose this one due to the penalty, which would have been sad, but I’m very happy with the way it ended up.”
Murray then showed his strength in the run as he pulled away from the field to claim victory in the event in his third attempt. “Third time’s a charm, they say,” he said.
“When I heard about that penalty, though, I thought it was a 15-second penalty and I knew the gap to Henri was not that big, so I pressed.
“That was the hardest I pushed myself in the first race of the season ever.”
In the women’s race, Britain’s Lucy Hall claimed victory in 59:34, one second ahead of compatriot Jessica Learmonth, with Japan’s Ai Ueda taking third.