Schoeman and Steyn retain 5150 African Championship titles
Triathlon action at the Germiston Lake.
Athletes head for the bike leg after their swim.
Henri Schoeman underlined his status as one of South Africa’s most promising triathletes by putting in a dominant performance to win his second consecutive Ekurhuleni 5150 African Championship title, on Sunday, leading from start to finish.
The championship was held at Germiston Lake.
Schoeman was in top form, putting on a display worthy of a 5150 African Champion.
As predicted, it was Schoeman who exited the water first, in only 13 minutes and 39 seconds, more than six minutes ahead of Wian Sullwald, who was the second athlete to enter first transition.
Sullwald exited the water with a group consisting of Eddie van Heerden, Basson Engelbrecht and Wikus Weber only seconds apart.
Schoeman’s early lead meant that he could control his own race and keep to his strategy, although he would have no place for complacency with the talent in the chasing pack.
Despite losing a fraction of time on the bike, his effort was enough to put him into second transition with a four-minute lead.
The chase pack entered the second transition as they exited first transition with Sullwald in second and Engelbrecht, van Heerden and Weber less than a minute back.
Schoeman started the 10km with a decent time cushion and looked strong throughout the run.
Never in any danger of being caught after his exceptional swim had set up his race well, he maintained his four-minute lead to finish first in a time of one hour, 47 minutes and three seconds.
Sullwald finished second, just under four minutes later.
Weber put in a strong run to overtake both Engelbrecht and van Heerden on his way to third place, two minutes back on Sullwald.
Andrea Steyn put her injury woes behind her to show just how good she is by successfully defending her title in a highly competitive field.
Steyn is, naturally, the favourite when she races, but after a long lay-off coupled with one of the strongest women’s fields assembled in South Africa, a win would be hard-earned.
It was Lucie Reed who exited the water first, just one second ahead of commonwealth star Kate Roberts.
Kerryn Grenfell was third into first transition, only five seconds off the leading two.
After a quick transition it was Roberts who was first out of second transition and onto the bike, with Reed and Grenfell only seconds behind.
Steyn exited the water fourth, in a second group consisting of Steyn, Charne Prinsloo and Lynette van der Merwe.
Prinsloo managed to exit first transition ahead of Steyn, in fifth position.
A close battle emerged between Roberts and Reed, with the latter managing to get slightly ahead approaching second transition.
Reed entered second transition first, with Roberts only 40 seconds behind.
Steyn was impressive on the bike, passing Prinsloo and making up the three-minute deficit on Grenfell, to enter second transition in third, only 20 seconds behind Roberts, to make it a close contest between the leading three.
With Reed ahead in the run, a dramatic few moments saw the lead change between the three athletes: Roberts passed Reed, while Steyn was approaching from behind.
Roberts’s lead was short-lived, as Steyn passed both her and Roberts to take the lead.
The rhythm and momentum she gained meant that it would take a big effort from Roberts and Reed to catch her.
Steyn eventually finished in a time of two hours, five minutes and 10 seconds, nearly a minute ahead of the second placed Roberts.
