1st World Series win for an South African Athlete

 

This event has been on my hit list since the start of the season since I heard it was a sprint distance. Knowing that I do better in the shorter distance due to my swim being a bit behind , the shorter distance allows me to be closer to the font guys out the water .

Flying and travel to Hamburg from Vitoria started with a banging on my room some 1 hour after I should have woken to catch my 8:15 bus .. It was then 8:05am!

With a real shuffel , some help from room mate Michael Gosman with packing, I sprinted to the van where physio/distance athlete Pricey was waiting .

A bit of a struggle to the bus station, a 1h40 trip by bus, 2flights and a taxi and I managed to miss race briefing due to badly booked flights and 2 flight delays .. BUT I got to hamburg !

Thursday evenings “pasta party” at the Marriott Hotel in hamburg mist have been top meal of the season for me and with Lindsey parry, Gillian Sanders and Kate Robberts at the table a great team to.

Ranked #4 but pushed to the back of the start list as I missed race breifing didnt really bother me, as a wetsuit swim and only 750meters it was actually good as I could sit down while the other top 10 athletes needed to wait/stand .

With some great music playing, the biggest crowds in ITU racing at hand and some great guidence and support from MA,PA and Lindsey Parry , my pre race prep was perfect.

Some 60 men on the start list and only 3 places on the podium, I needed to have a killer swim to hold on to the front pack .

Last year in Laussane “world sprint champs” I was around 5-10seconds back form the lead bunch out the water ….. This wasn’t going to happen today .

With a big dive start “which I really love” we set off towards the 3 bouys which were set around 200-230meters from the pontoon . Starting on the far left , as I was called out last , I soon saw that I was leading the group from the left of the field . With a new TYR wetsuit once size smaller than my last size 😉 I felt like a fish in the water!

Out the water with some of the biggest names in the sport after a very fast swim, I was only 20-odd seconds behind Javier Gomez . With everyone having a super quick T1 I needed to punish myself on the bike , but racing on a new bike “KTM revelator” and on a set of deep section DT-swiss 46mm carbon clinchers … things were a lot easier.

thanks to KTM for delivering my bike a while before Hamburg .

#BikePorn +Tune parts

Out onto the bike with the main pack , and with my heart trying to escape my body , things were all in place for a epic race . With Gomez and some good names around 10-15sec up the road in front of us, our bunch knew that if we didn’t go hard we would be fighting for a top5 finish .

With help from Jan Frodeno , Arron Royle and a few others we rained the front few containing Gomez in on lap 2 and I started to smile a bit 😉 With some tight corners, crowds 3-4deep, shouting so loud , it was really something spectacular.

 

Off the bike and onto the blue carpet into T2 we were soon changing from a Mark Cavendish to a —-> Usain Bolt in around 20-odd seconds .

For the 1st 500meters I was keen to run with the front pack and pick it up half way through the 5km race, but my legs felt otherwise ….

At around 500metres I put in a surge at around 2:40-2:45/km for the 1st 1-2km this may have been a rather long surge . I was feeling strong and in control of my pace and body, and knew that the pace we were running was a bit insane . I decided to not look back, keep my head down, and run fast for 2-3km.

At the 2nd U-turn on the 2.5km loop, Javier Gomez was breathing down my neck with Steffan Justus was on his heels. Coming through the transition for the final lap and the noise/cheering could probably be heard in the stratosphere !

Gomez & I coming through transition .

 

Then next 2.5km would be Javier and myself putting 4-5 surge’s into each other , none of which worked . We knew with around 800 meters to go that it would come down to a sprint finish .

With 2 corners and a +- 400meter straight to the finish we both took a turn too look back to see where Steffan Justus was. I decided to go early, and put a huge sprint into the last 90degree left hand corner and kept accelerating for 200meters .

A short look back and I was clear of Gomez “one of the most repected triathletes in the world” .

I was so ecstatic knowing that I had the biggest win of my career with around 200meters to go , I was silly to give a few high-fives with Gomez only 15-20meters behind .

 

Pos	First Name	Last Name	Country		Time	Swim	T1	Bike	T2	Run
1	Richard	Murray	RSA		00:51:48	00:08:56	00:00:39	00:27:52	00:00:18	00:14:05
2	Javier	Gomez	ESP		00:51:53	00:08:32	00:00:42	00:28:13	00:00:18	00:14:10
3	Steffen	Justus	GER		00:51:59	00:08:40	00:00:37	00:28:09	00:00:20	00:14:16
4	Sven	Riederer	SUI		00:52:04	00:08:46	00:00:44	00:27:59	00:00:19	00:14:18
5	Maik	Petzold	GER		00:52:05	00:08:35	00:00:39	00:28:13	00:00:21	00:14:19

This was an event I have been looking forward to since last year when I was sick and DNF’d , watching Will Clarke/ Brad Karlefeldt and others sprint for the line .

I have been very focused since after my birthday on the 4th January , and now I have a gold-silver and bronze leading up to London in just over 2 weeks .

The realization that the games is a Olympic Distance triathlon and not a sprint is very solid in my mind at the moment, but on the day of the 7th of August 2012… ANYTHING is possible .

A huge thank you to : TSA & SASCOC , for funding my international career this year, without such backing and support from my country, It would not be possible.

Will be off to the Opening Ceremony on the 27th July , and then to London on the 3rd … Till then , ill be in Vitoria-Gasteiz 😉

Over and out .

DJ- RD