South Africa has a new sporting hero, and his name is Henri Schoeman!
Where it was the more experienced Richard Murray who was considered to be an outside medal hope, the 24-year-old Schoeman from Durban clinched Team South Africa’s eighth medal at the Rio Olympics on Thursday with an astonishing performance to finish third and claim bronze in the men’s triathlon – the first ever triathlon medal won by a South African.
An excellent performance in the 1.5km swim leg by Schoeman, where he stayed with the lead group throughout, ensured that he was in contention from the start.
Schoeman maintained his speed in the 40km cycle, sticking with Great Britain’s brother pair of Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, who exchanged the lead with Slovakian Richard Varga.
But the decisive part of the triathlon was always going to be the 10km run, and Varga quickly fell off the pace as the Brownlees were joined by Frenchman Vincent Luis in the lead breakaway group.
Schoeman worked his way up the field from the final transition, showing great patience to not go out too hard in hot conditions in Rio.
He was fourth after the first two of four laps on the road, but gradually caught Luis about halfway through the third 2.5km lap, and never relinquished his advantage.
In fact, while Alistair Brownlee sped away from his brother Jonny upfront, Schoeman tried to chase down Jonny, but ran out of steam towards the end. But it was enough to clinch bronze in 1 hour 45 minutes and 43 seconds, with Murray – who battled in the swim and cycle legs – finishing strongly to move from sixth to fourth on the final lap in 1:45.50.
Alistair Brownlee defended his title from the 2012 London Olympics to win gold in 1:45.01, with brother Jonny taking silver in 1:45.07.
@ashfakmohamed