PADDY Murphy and Charmaine Shannon were the overall winners of the 2011 Mariental Triathlon which took place at the Hardap Dam near Mariental on Saturday.
Despite being a master triathlete at the age of 50, Murphy showed his younger competitors a thing or two as he comfortably won the event in a total time of 2 hours 24 minutes and 11 seconds.Willie van Zyl came second, more than 10 minutes behind in 2:34:45, while Philip Steyn came third in 2:41:36. The triathlon, which took place for the 24th consecutive time, consisted of a 1,5km swim, a 40km cycle and a 10km run.Murphy took the lead from the start and by the end of the swimming leg he had already built up a lead of close to five minutes on Philip Steyn.Murphy completed the swimming leg in 23 minutes 24 seconds, followed by Steyn (28:20) and Van Zyl (29:17).Willie van Zyl came back strongly on the cycle leg to move into second position, but Murphy once again stretched his lead as he pulled away from his competitors on the running leg. Charmaine Shannon won the women’s title after a great comeback on the running leg saw her overtaking Vera Adrian.The 17-year-old Adrian had taken an early lead after a great swimming leg of 28:32, which was also the third fastest overall swimming time.Shannon, followed more than two minutes, and although she narrowed the gap slightly on the cycling leg she still had a deficit of more than two minutes going into the final running leg.Shannon however gave a great performance to overtake Adrian and complete the running leg in 45:28, which was the fastest running leg of all the competitors. Shannon won the women’s category in an overall time of 2:42:59, followed by Adrian (2:45:11) and Barbara Ackerman (2:56:37).Adrian won the Junior Female category, while Matthias Kreft won the Junior Male category in a time of 3:00:14.Paul Munting won the Veteran Male category in 2:49:17, while Barbara Ackermann won the Veteran Female category.Elke Jagau won the Masters Female category in 3:02:00.A total of 43 triathletes completed the triathlon. – namibiasport.com.na
