Second international victory of the year for Richard Murray at Mooloolaba World Cup

Richard Murray has a second international victory of the year, as he won in Mooloolaba, Australia, ahead of next month’s Commonwealth Games, also in Australia, MARK ETHERIDGE reports.

Fellow Rio Olympian Henri Schoeman won the WTS event in Abu Dhabi, where Murray ended 10th after a crash, and the latter then headed across the world for the World Cup event in Mooloolaba.

The event was held less than 200km north of Gold Coast where Murray and Schoeman will be joined by fellow SA triathletes Wian Sullwald, Gillian Sanders and Simone Ackermann at the Games.

Speaking to Team SA, Murray (who won the Cape Town World Cup last month) said: ‘I’ve got two World Cups this year already, which is pretty cool. The last few years I’ve managed one in Cape Town and one in New Plymouth so now that’s my World Cups done for this season.’

Murray was timed at 53min 09sec for the 750m swim, 20km cycle and 5km run, which put him four seconds clear of the host nation’s Matt Hauser.

American Matthew McElroy placed third.

Murray exited the water around 40sec off the pace but made most of that deficit up on the bike leg and his run of 14min 54sec was the quickest on the day.

‘After my crash in Abu Dhabi, it was quite a challenge to get over from my sore shoulder.

‘Now I’m in Wanaka near Queensland on the South Island of New Zealand and ready for a massive block of training before heading over to Australia at the end of the month.’

Post Commonwealth Games, Murray will fly west to the Netherlands city of Sittard. ‘I’ve got a short training camp with the Dutch triathlon team and my new Dutch coaches as I already target the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

‘I’m looking forward to trying out different things and get that little bit more out of myself.’

The only other South African in Mooloolaba action was Aussie-based Anel Radford. She clocked 62:19 for 18th spot as Australia’s Emma Jeffcoat won in 59:35.

Photo: Delly Carr/ITU Media

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Article Originally Posted on www.intocycling.co.za