The ITU World Cup season kicks off this weekend with the first of our 17-stop tour in Cape Town. With everything ready, check out what South Africans Henri Schoeman and Gillian Sanders, as well as Bob Haller (LUX) had to say before diving in the cold waters of the city.
Bob Haller
On why he loves so much Cape Town: “For Europeans, we love to scape from Europe during the Winter months and this is a great destination, and in the same time zone. I really liked it the first time I was here, my first WTS race was here in Cape Town and I have a special relationship with this city. I have raced all the WTS or world cups here in Cape Town. I train a lot also here and in Pretoria. I really like this country”.
On the water temperature: “It’s really cold, that’s the only thing I really don’t like here. That’s why I didn’t shave my beard here, cause it will help keeping me warm in the water.
On his expectations for Sunday: “I want to take this as a test, because last year was not a very good one for me, and I have changed lots of thing for this season. I have changed my training, I moved to Portugal, where we have better weather than in Luxemburg -15 degrees and sun-. And is good to have this race early in the season to test myself, see how I trained during the winter”.
Gillian Sanders
On her being a Commonwealth Games medallist in Glasgow: “I think that was one of the highlights of my career. It was a fantastic race, and we didn’t expect a medal so that made it even more special. And hopefully we can repeat that in Australia in a couple of months”.
On her being a professional triathlete dedicated full time to the sport: “I think triathlon needs full commitment, dedicating 100% of our time to this. We do five to six hours of training a day, and we also need recovery time. And you probably can’t have a full time job and spend so many hours a day training and recovering”.
On her feelings when racing at home: “Every athlete’s dream is to race at the highest level at home. When the World Series came to Cape Town we were all super excited, it was wonderful for all of us t come and race in front of the home crowd. There’s nothing quite like it. My sister lives in Cape Town so I’ve been living with her in the last few days, my parents are also here to support, so for me it’s great not only to race at home but also to be able to see the family after all the winter training in Europe first and then in Namibia with the Dutch team, so really glad to be back home”.
Henri Schoeman
On his feelings being the bronze medallist in Rio: “That was definitely a moment that I look back and I won’t forget ever. It was one of the most amazing moments in my life ever, something I would never forget. Now I keep training and challenging myself to do even better”.
On the race in Cape Town last year, with a podium sweep by South Africa: “Last year it was an amazing race, and to have a clean podium for South Africa… you can’t get better than that. I had a good race last year, we all did, but this year I just wanna focus on executing the best race possible and give 100%. This race is also a great chance of testing ourselves before the Commonwealth Games, to see if we are in good shape and if there’s anything lacking”.
On triathlon being an individual sport but also representing Team South Africa in some races: “It is an individual sport, but of course we all race also for our countries. We are all trying to have the best possible day for ourselves, but also if there’s an opportunity that we can help somehow another athlete, on the bike pushing or however, we all do our best”.
