Van der Merwe had an even worse time of it. “The swim was different to any other race we’ve done, with the current. It was a tactical swim, a lot of the girls struggled,” said the mother-of-one who has a full-time job.
“At one stage I thought I was going to drown around a buoy; I was under water for quite a long time.”
With no attack on the bike, the men’s triathlon came down to the 10km run. “When I hit the run, the legs just didn’t arrive. I gave it my best shot,” said Schoeman, who has spent most of the past three years recovering from a broken ankle sustained at Tokyo 2020.
“I lacked a bit of race speed, but it was also hot out there.”
Riddle said he felt his hamstring cramping getting out of the water but he was determined to grit it out to the end.
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