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Murphy shows why he is a world class act

FNB-desert-Willie-van-Zyl-wPaddy Murphy retained his title as overall winner of the ultra FNB Desert Triathlon, showing again why he is a world class athlete. He completed the ultra triathlon – 1.9km swim, 90 km cycle and 21.5km run – in a time of 5h08.
Elke Jagua was the overall female winner in the Ultra in a time of 6h43m.
Weather conditions made the race extremely hard. Swimming conditions were aggravated by unusual choppy water in the Mole, as well as a slight rip.
The strong winds that started out early in the morning made for a very tough cycle, especially on the salt road behind the dunes, where wind speed picked up considerably.
Murphy had this to say about the competition:”Probably one of the most difficult of conditions that I have swum in, in 30 years of racing all over the world but it was perfect for my swimming style.
There was big Swell and forever changing chop with each directional change.
I quickly realised half way to the first buoy that if I really cranked up the heat in the most difficult swim conditions and early bike section with the strong tail wind, that it would take the internationals some settling-in time before they found their legs and rhythm and would be intimidated with the speed of a half Iron man and then it would be there for me just to defend a lead.”
The standard distance triathlon which consisted of a 1km swim, 40 km bike and 10km run was won by Willie Van Zyl with a time of 2h11.
Closely behind was veteran, Patrick De Goede, who record a  time of 2h17, while South African competitor, Glen McNamara came in third overall and second in the Elite age category.
FNB Namibia gave a sponsorship of N$40 000 for the staging of the FNB Desert Triathlon.

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