Lipstick and assault - the dangers of triathlon

Danger lurked at every corner of the Discovery World Cup in Cape Town on Sunday — and even after the race.

Winner Richard Murray was happy not to get assaulted in the swim leg for a change‚ and runner-up Henri Schoeman was nearly interviewed on TV after a sloppy congratulatory kiss from his girlfriend.

“Wipe your mouth‚” she warned him as he walked towards the camera crew.

“It’s full of lipstick.”

For someone who finished second‚ Schoeman was full of smiles — with and without lipstick.

He had led after the 750-metre swim‚ 17 seconds ahead of Murray‚ 11th at the time.

But that‚ by Murray’s standards‚ was a good effort.

“I had a pretty reasonable swim and I was pretty happy with it.

"That’s obviously the big focus for me coming into this one…

“I was in a good position in the swim‚ I had a friend of mine‚ Jonas Schomburg from Germany‚ who was on my left.

"It’s always good to have a friend that starts next to you‚ doesn’t smack you around too much‚ which is nice.”

There was a problem at the first transition when Murray’s wetsuit wouldn’t come off easily because it got stuck on the timing chip.

“It cost me five seconds‚ which cost me another 30 seconds on the bike to catch up‚” said Murray.

“It’s a compound type thing. I’ll put vaseline over the timing chip [next time]‚ it helps a bit.”

Murray joined the lead group quickly in the 20km cycle and then stuck there until the 5km run.

“On the run I went out full gas at the start and Henri came with me for the first 800m or 700m so we really pushed at the start and I had to really dig to keep him off my heels‚” said Murray‚ who beat Schoeman by 24 seconds.

Not that Schoeman‚ the Olympic bronze medallist from the 2016 Rio Games‚ minded.

“As I knew heading into the race my running still needs a bit of tweaking and I could see that on the run today [I need] a little bit more fitness‚ but you know there’s two months to work on that.”

Murray‚ Schoeman and Simone Ackermann and Gillian Sanders‚ fourth and 18th in the women’s race‚ are looking forward to the team relay at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast‚ Australia‚ in April.

“I think [a gold] is possible.

“We have a pretty good team‚ so the strategy who goes where is quite important and I think it’s quite possible if we work well together we can do a good job‚” said Murray‚ who’s also looking at winning the men’s individual race.

“I want to beat the Brownlees [Alistair and Jonathan‚ Britain’s Olympic gold and silver medallists]‚ that’s what I want to do. I’m trying for golds‚ but we’ll see what happens.”

And given that the triathlon at the Games is a sprint distance — the same as the Cape Town event — that’ll make Murray that much more dangerous.