Marten Van Riel took silver at the Ironman South Africa African Championship on Sunday, qualifying for the Ironman World Championship set for September 14 in Nice, France.
Taking lessons from his maiden Ironman in Cozumel last year where he finished 7th after a bike crash, the Belgian executed a near-perfect race in Nelson Mandela Bay in his first race sporting the Bahrain Victorious colours.
Emerging first out of the water in 50:16 over a 3.8-kilometre swim, he then stayed out of trouble inside the top three on the 180-kilometre cycle course to log a 4:32:07 split. While eventual champion Magnus Ditlev had taken off at halfway to gap him by over six minutes at the bike-to-run transition, Van Riel gave valiant chase with the day’s fastest marathon time (2:39:38) to become Ironman African vice champion and enter the Ironman Pro Series standings in second.
He said post-race, “I came here wanting a slot for Nice especially; I think that was my most important goal today and I did that. I think that I also can take a lot of lessons with me to Nice. Racing someone like Magnus is a pleasure.”
This coming weekend will see more Bahrain Victorious 13 stars in action. Reigning world champion Cassandre Beaugrand will vie for another world title at the Supertri E World Triathlon Championship, while Ironman 70.3 world champion Taylor Knibb alongside India Lee, Vincent Luis, Leo Bergere and Jelle Geens take on the T100 Triathlon Singapore.
