After an injury and illness plagued
couple of seasons, South Africa’s Henri Schoeman continued his emotional return
to the pinnacle of racing with a gold medal at Arena Games Triathlon powered by
Zwift Switzerland. The 31-year-old 2016 Olympic Games bronze medallist took
control on the second of the day’s three stages, beating a stacked field of
stars in the process and laying down a major marker ahead of the Arena Games
2023 final in London on April 8. France’s Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger took
second, with Swiss racer Simon Westermann pleasing the home crowd with bronze
position.
“It feels amazing. I first want to
thank the crowd out here who have pushed us to our absolute limits – the arena
here is so compact and electrifying. It’s my first win since all of the
injuries and setbacks I’ve faced, and I’m so thrilled with my performance. I’m
loving my life right now”, said Schoeman after his emotional win.
Switzerland made its long-awaited
Super League debut, with a sell-out crowd filling the CAMPUS Sursee Sportarena
on the banks of Lake Sempach. The action saw a mass start eight length 200m
pool swim in a 25m and not 50m pool (a first for the Arena Games), before a 4km
Zwift bike leg and a 1km run on an elliptical running machine. Stage 2 would
reverse that order, beginning with a 1km mass start run before a 4km bike and a
200m swim. The concluding Stage 3 would open with a Pursuit Start 200m swim,
before the 4km bike leg and final 1km run to crown the overall winner.
Straight into the 200m swim and
little separated the field throughout, with Swiss home favourite Fabian
Meeusen, 24, edging the field into T1 just ahead of Justus Nieschlag (GER) and
Schoeman.
Super League regular Nieschlag had
the lead by the halfway mark of the Zwift bike leg, with Italy’s 22-year-old
Nicolò Strada (who finished third at Arena Games Triathlon London in 2022),
moving into second. But it would be Nieschlag who’d be first into T2.
Onto the 1km run and the noise in the
packed arena went up a notch as Swiss athlete Simon Westermann, 24, moved into
pole position just ahead of Meeusen as Nieschlag dropped back to fifth. The
stage win would be Westermann’s ahead of Schoeman and Meeusen, with just 12secs
separating the whole field in possibly the tightest event in Arena Games’
history.
The reverse order Stage 2 started
back on the run, with France’s Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger, 26, pushing the
21km/h pace at the front of the field and establishing a 2sec gap over Stapley
by T1.
With spots at the Arena Games
Triathlon 2023 finale in London up-for-grabs, the 4km bike leg continued to see
a relentless pace on display. The big news was Super League star Nieschlag
dropping to the final position as Hueber-Moosbrugger continued to lead the
field, with Germany’s Lasse Nygaard Priester, 27, moving into second and then
first before the 4km mark.
First to reach the halfway point of
the 200m swim was Schoeman, one of triathlon’s very best swimmers, with just
5secs separating the top five and only 20secs the whole field. Schoeman’s
advantage was 4secs over Hueber-Moosbrugger by the finish, with Nieschlag
moving back into the reckoning by taking third. It was all to play for on the
deciding Stage 3.
After Schoeman’s 8sec headstart, little
separated the field on the 200m swim’s pursuit start, with just 7secs between
the next seven athletes. Those margins were largely intact at the end of the
swim, with Westermann managing to move into second ahead of the chasing pack.
The 4km bike leg began with Schoeman,
in just his second-ever Arena Games race, having a 10sec lead over the field.
Nieschlag, knowing his short-course run performance has dipped since his move
to long-course racing, moved into second, but only slightly managed to chip away
at Schoeman’s lead. The South African had an 8sec advantage at T2.
After a seamless transition, Schoeman
was first onto the 1km run ahead of Nieschlag and Westermann, his advantage
extending to 12secs. That 21km/h pace returned but Schoeman was making it look
effortless, striding to victory as Westermann and Hueber-Moosbrugger battled
for the remaining podium spots. The French star was just too strong, but
Westermann held off Strada to take bronze ahead of a rapturous home support.
Results: Elite Men
1. Henri
Schoeman RSA 00:34:18
2. Maxime
Hueber-Moosbrugger FRA 00:34:26
3. Simon
Westermann SUI 00:34:28
4. Nicolò
Strada ITA 00:34:33
5. Fabian
Meeusen SUI 00:34:35
ABOUT WORLD TRIATHLON
World Triathlon is the international
governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic sport of triathlon and all
related multisport disciplines around the world, including duathlon, aquathlon,
cross triathlon and winter triathlon. Triathlon made its Olympic debut in
Sydney 2000, with a third medal event, the Mixed Team Relay, added to the
programme at Tokyo 2020, while para triathlon was first added to the Paralympic
programme at Rio 2016. World Triathlon is proudly committed to the development
of the sport worldwide, with inclusion, equality, sustainability and transparency
at our core as we seek to help triathletes at all levels of the sport to be
extraordinary.
www.triathlon.org
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