When Henri Schoeman won the African Triathlon title in East London for the second successive year yesterday, he proved to be a real class act.

Schoeman led from start to finish, winning the 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run in 2 hours and 48 seconds.

Wian Sullwald (Tuks/HPC), who finished second overall in 2:04:05, won the African under-23 title for a third time. His teammate, Basson Engelbrecht (Tuks/HPC), was third overall in 2:05:27 and the second under-23 athlete to finish.

Sullwald had reason to be happy with his performance. It was the first time in nine weeks that he was able to compete and he admitted that he was nervous and unsure of himself when he started his race.

“Naturally I was hoping for a top-three finish but I was not sure how my knee would hold up. I won’t say it was 100%. The big positive I can take from the race is that I was able to finish the 10km run without being in serious pain. However, I have to admit that Sunday’s run was certainly one of the hardest I have ever raced. The fact that I was only able to start running again last week definitely caught up with me. Over the last 5 kilometres I died bit by bit with each step I took.

“The important thing is that I gained valuable international ranking points which should enhance my chance to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio.”

Schoeman had a lead of nearly 60 seconds after the 1.5km swim.

Sullwald was disappointed with his swim.

“I am not entirely to blame for what happened in the water. Mehdi Essadiq (Morocco) made things difficult for me. He was trailing in my slipstream and, try as I may, I just could not drop him.  When I tried to swim away from him during the first lap, he prevented me from doing so by grabbing my ankles or swimming into me. On the second lap I managed to open a small gap.”

The two Tuks/HPC athletes formed an alliance during the 40km cycle in which they managed to drop the Moroccan. Going onto the 10km run it quickly became clear that Sullwald was the stronger runner.

Sullwald said that once he realized that he was not going to catch up with Schoeman and that Engelbrecht was not going to gain time on him, he went into survival mode and merely focussed on finishing the 10 kilometres.

Engelbrecht said afterwards that he was unhappy with the way his race played out.

“I really battled on the run and I am not sure why. I will have to sit down with my coach, Lindsey Parry, to try and find out what went wrong. The positive for me is that I had a relatively good swim as well as a strong cycle.”

Engelbrecht concluded that patience is a virtue and that he is confident that he it is only a matter of time before he will be able to put together that near perfect race.