South Africa’s Richard Murray at the ITU World Triathlon Series in Yokohama, Japan. Photo: Delly Carr, ITU Media
South Africa’s Richard Murray set the second fastest run split en route to a top five placing at the ITU World Triathlon Series in Yokohama, Japan, on Saturday.
This was a great result for Murray after battling up the field from 20th place.
Brit Jonathan Brownlee won the race in 1 hour 44 minutes and 59 seconds. His time of 29 minutes 21 seconds for the 10km was the fastest on the day.
Javier Gomez (1:45.23) and Joao Silva (1:46.16) rounded out the podium.
Murray’s time was 1:47.23 and 29.39 for the 10km.
This fast run was despite twisting his ankle in training leading up to the race.
Fellow South African Henri Schoeman (1:47.26) finished sixth. Schoeman was with the front-runners until the run.
Murray got out of the water 50 seconds behind Brownlee and company, starting the run some two minutes behind.
“I had some great fun today. I felt really good during the run and managed to run one of my best times ever.
“I felt pretty happy with my swim, but I still was almost a minute behind. The bike leg was really hard and missing the strong cycling bunch cost me big time.
“I gave everything I had on the run though and I am happy with the way it turned out.”
Kate Roberts and Gillian Sanders rounded off a great weekend for South African triathlon by finishing seventh and 12th in the women’s race.
