It was not as serious as for Jonathan Brownlee, victim of a broken elbow after a fall on his bike (with Alex Yee) caused by the… winner Hayden Wilde, but Marten Van Riel had returned damaged from Leeds! Engaged in the second round of the World Series, the Antwerp man had fallen heavily just in view of the finish, which he had nevertheless crossed in 12th position.
“I crawled to the line!” he had launched in a colorful way. “In the last meters, downhill, I went through my ankle and hit the barriers hard on the left with my shoulder.”
Supported by the medical service, the fourth of the Tokyo Games had passed examinations and Glenn Poleunis, his coach, revealed the verdict.
“Marten has a shoulder subluxation and a sprained ankle. So the shoulder is fine. But the ankle is more tricky. We hope he can resort to here a few days.”
Unfortunately, after having finished 9th again in the third WTS round on June 25, in Montreal, Marten Van Riel withdrew for that of Hamburg, at the beginning of July, and now for the Euro in Munich! The Antwerper will therefore unfortunately not be at the start of the event, for which he won the bronze medal in 2018, in Glasgow, both individually and in the mixed relay.
“After seven weeks of running with pain in my ankle, I started to feel more pain. And I had an MRI which revealed bone edema in my ankle. So I can’t run! So I activated the bike mode, the time to see how my injury evolves. It is of course still a disappointment for me because this season is absolutely not going as I had planned.
The Belgian delegation to the Munich Euro will therefore include six triathletes: Jelle Geens, Erwin Vanderplancke and Noah Servais, on the male side; Valerie Barthelemy, Hanne De Vet and Jolien Vermeylen, female side.
