Tin Man toil finally pays off for Darryn Purtell
His perseverance - and bravery - has paid off.
DARRYN Purtell of Southbroom won the last of the four-race Tin Man Series held on Durban beachfront in front of Suncoast Casino last weekend.
It was his first win in the series and he was pretty pleased with his efforts.
From the moment he arrived on the beach he knew it wasn’t going to be the easiest of races.
“The wind had made sea conditions less than ideal and it would also play a part on the rest of the race,” he said.
After watching the shorter races start before them and seeing how those competitors struggled in the shore-break, some of the longer distance athletes decided against doing the swim, opting just to cycle and run and thus not get an official time.
“For those of us who did start, the first few hundred metres of the 1km swim were definitely harder than expected but thankfully over quickly,” he said.
“I think my experience and many years swimming at Southbroom beach definitely played a role in getting me out past backline,” he added.
Darryn came out the water in the third group, following experienced athletes Glen Gore and Brad Venter.
“I do a lot of my training with Brad at Wattworx (his high performance studio) and know how strong a cyclist he is. Luckily, there were four of us in our group to work together and we brought the whole race together with 10km left to go on the bike,” said Darryn.
Seven of them went into transition together and three made a break early in the run, but the others kept a consistent pace.
Thanks to Donovan Geldenhuys, they were able to close the gap by the end of the first 5km lap of the run.
Donovan then put in another effort to split the race up for the last time and Darryn was just able to make this four-man group.
With just under 2km to go in the run he made his move and put in an acceleration, thinking that the group would stay with him.
“It seemed like I got my timing right and I was able to carry the gap all the way to the line,” he said, almost surprised.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
For news straight to your phone, add us on BBM 58F3D7A7 or WhatsApp 082 421 6033
