The first day of the Discovery Get Active weekend in Cape Town on Saturday 11 February drew to a close with the triumphant ring of the South African anthem, thanks to the men’ s elite sprint triathlon race being dominated by green and gold. Richard Murray finished in first place in 51 minutes and 33 seconds, despite a 10-second transition penalty for his helmet falling out of his storage box, and he was followed closely by Olympic bronze medallist Henri Schoeman( 51:41), with former World Junior Champion Wian Sullwald finishing third( 51:56) as he made a welcome return from a long lay-off due to injury and illness.
Murray was unable to compete last year due to injury, and after two previous unsuccessful attempts at a podium finish for this race, he was thrilled to finally win his hometown event. He also said it was“ an exciting first for South Africa to take one, two and three on the podium.”
The women’ s elite race ended in a nail-biting sprint finish, with just a few tenths of a second between Great Britain’ s Lucy Hall( 59:34) and Jessica Learmonth( 59:35). Hall said she looked forward to competing again soon in South Africa but“ it would have to be a sprint race in conditions as hot as today’ s.” Japan’ s Ai Ueda was third in 1:00:04, with the best South African finisher being Anel Radford in 15th position( 1:01:53).
“ There were perfect conditions for all those who took part on the Saturday, and fantastic crowd support for the elites as our South African athletes stepped up and made their country proud. It was an exciting day, from the first age group to the elite races,” said Gary Marescia, Discovery Get Active Weekend Race Director.
GLOBAL ATTRACTION
The Discovery Triathlon World Cup Cape Town is the first event on the Triathlon World Cup global calendar, kicking off the international season as well as the 2017 multisport calendar in Cape Town. The first day of the multisport weekend saw athletes competing in one of two triathlon distances – Standard 750m / 40km / 10km or Sprint 500m / 20km / 5km – in the
Discovery World Triathlon Cup Cape Town. That included 59 entries in the team category from various companies, families and schools.
Dr Craig Nossel, Head of Vitality Wellness at Discovery said,“ It was wonderful to see such a variety of people, from different backgrounds, ages and athletic abilities taking part. The field of competitors ranged from 15 to 64 years old, showing that the sport of triathlon is for everyone. A special part of this event is that it takes place in the heart of one of the world’ s most visited cities, giving participants the opportunity to swim in the harbour at the V & A Waterfront, and cycle and run alongside the iconic Cape Town Stadium.”
MORE ACTION TO FOLLOW
Sunday 12 February saw the second leg of the Discovery Get Active Weekend, with another wave of athletes taking part in the Discovery Duathlon Cape Town, which consists of a run, cycle, run across three distance options, Standard 10km / 40km / 5km, Sprint 5km / 20km / 2.5km or Super Sprint 2.5km / 10km / 2.5km. In the standard distance main event, the athletes were led home by the Atlantic Triathlon Club team, with Rohan Kennedy the first individual over the line in 1:47:12. First amongst the women was Kelly van der Toorn, who outpaced Christelle Hattingh to take the win in 2:01:29.
The Discovery Get Active weekend is the perfect multisport event for high performance athletes, age groupers and novices alike, with distances and disciplines catering for every level.
23