An incredibly fast swim from Rudolf Visser set up a big victory in the Westcoast Warmwater Weekend standard distance triathlon at the West Coast National Park on Saturday.
After destroying the competition in the 1,5km opening leg of the event, Visser saw his lead reduced but was still able to record a convincing five-minute win over Manfred Wiehahn. The 1,5km-swim, took place in the Langebaan Lagoon while the 40km-ride and 10km-run were held in the surrounding national park.
In the women’s event, consistency was the key for Michelle Krebs as she put together three steady legs to record a big win over Catherine Priday with Helen Ellison third.
Visser blitzed through the 1 500m swim in a time of 20 minutes 17 seconds while Samuel Courts was the next out the water with a time of 28:12. Wiehahn was fifth in the swim, just behind Ellison, the leading woman for the swim leg, and Vaughn Forbes.
Wiehahn passed a struggling Courts on the cycling leg, but only managed to regain a few seconds on the runaway leader, allowing Visser to go into the run leg knowing it would take a disaster to prevent victory.
Wiehahn was again able to reduce the gap on the last discipline, but he was always racing for second and just managed to hold off Courts to hold onto the runner-up spot.
Swiss-born Krebs had three consistent disciplines while all her rivals in the women’s race struggled in at least one leg of and she ended up with an overall time of 2:41:32, which was also good enough for an impressive 11th overall against the men.
Priday was second in 2:52:14 with Ellison fading back after her powerful swim to finish just 13 seconds further behind.
In the shorter 750m, 20km, 5km sprint distance, Alexander Laugksch just edged out Joshua Scott for the men’s title while Genine Attwell claimed the women’s title.
The 10th anniversary Westcoast Warmwater Weekend powered by MiWayLife concludes on Sunday with an open-water swim. There, competitors will take to the turquoise waters of the lagoon once again for 3,8km, 1,6km (1 Mile) or 800m distances.
Leading results
Standard Distance
Men
1 Rudolf Visser 2.21.03
2 Manfred Wiehahn 2.26.47
3 Samuel Courts 2.27.22
4 Walter Hayes 2.32.05
5 Travys Wilkins 2.34.18
Women
1 Michelle Krebs 2.41.32
2 Catherine Priday 2.52.14
3 Helen Ellison 2.52.27
4 Angelique Wilkins 2.55.39
5 Simone Faulmann 3.03.35
Sprint distance
Men
1 Alexander Laugksch 1.20.00
2 Joshua Scott 1.20.01
3 Steve Attwell 1.26.00
4 James Peart 1.26.10
5 Joe Botha 1.27.07
Women
1 Genine Attwell 1.33.03
2 Clare Townsend 1.41.46
3 Aimee Scott 1.41.59
4 Adri Muller 1.45.22
5 Nienke Van Schaik 1.45.39