Murray And Van Huyssteen Shake Up Totalsports Xterra SA Champs

News Release / 24.02.2013

Olympian Richard Murray and reigning XTERRA SA champion Carla Van Huyssteen were on fire in Elgin Grabouw (Western Cape) on Sunday, 24 February 2013 at the TOTALSPORTS XTERRA South African Championship presented by REHIDRAT® SPORT completing the 1.5km swim, 27km mountain bike and 11km trail run first in the men’s and women’s category in combined times of 02hours23minutes02seconds and 02hours51minutes01seconds respectively.

According to Murray this is his best performance by far in South Africa.  “This is my first South African title.  I swam with Tim Don, exiting the water seconds behind him and only 25 seconds ahead of Conrad Stoltz.  I was uncertain going into the bike and really expected Conrad to catch me sooner.  It was only on the 10km mark that he caught me and then proceeded to pull away.  He just has so much power in his legs.  I was about 30 or 40 seconds behind Conrad coming into transition and managed to pull him about half way through the run.  From there I just kept it together till the end.  It was a big day for me.  I’ve wanted this win for the last 3 to 4 years.  The Totalsports XTERRA is definitely the most contended race in South Africa.  I had so much fun and will definitely be back next year,” says Murray. 

An event official reported that Stoltz deviated from the run route and as a result official rules had to be applied and Stoltz had to be disqualified.  Dan Hugo therefore took second place on the day, with Nico Pfitzenmaier finishing third. 

For Van Huyssteen the successful title defence was a-dream-come true.  “I had to work hard the entire race,” says Van Huyssteen.  “The swim was a bit chaotic in the beginning with me choosing the wrong line.  I still had a good swim though, entering transition first.  I knew I had to work hard as Shonny Vanlandingham is an amazing mountain biker.  I managed to find good rhythm on the bike.  Going into the run I knew I had to give my all as my husband wouldn’t be impressed with me if it looked like I was taking it easy,” laughs Van Huyssteen.  “Today’s race was great.  I had a knot in my stomach the whole way as I really wanted this win”.  Susan Sloan came in second, while Shonny Vanlandingham (Durango, Colorado) finished third.

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