Triathlon superstar Marten van Riel’s IRONMAN South Africa bid hit by brutal food poisoning

T100 World Champion Marten Van Riel suffered both on and off the course last weekend as he earned his berth at the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice with second-place at IRONMAN South Africa.

The 32-year-old Belgian star, who will be back in action on Sunday at T100 Singapore, was competing in just his second full-distance race and put in a solid performance behind the scintillating winner Magnus Ditlev.

However, the two-time Olympian was battling health issues throughout race week, suffering from a bout of food poisoning which hampered his performance before and during the 140.6-mile test in Port Elizabeth.

Van Riel ‘Sick from both ends’

Van Riel gave an indication of his perilous IRONMAN South Africa experience on his Instagram account.

“Second place in IRONMAN South Africa behind the big man @magnuselbaekditlev. I was a bit disappointed at first because my race week didn’t go as planned due to food poisoning and that was frustrating after a pretty much flawless build up these last months.

“Ironman is a very hard distance to nail and you don’t have many opportunities but that is what makes it exciting and challenging. Most importantly, my ticket for the IRONMAN World Champs in Nice is in the pocket and I can’t wait to give it another go there.”

Not the only

In an interview on the All In Triathlon Podcast with Jelle Geens and Aaron Royle ahead of this week’s race in Singapore, Van Riel confirmed that in the build up to the IRONMAN Pro Series event that “he was sick from both ends.”

“A lot of the competitors had issues, a lot had some kind of gastrointestinal issues. In South Africa the food is different, which I think was the thing,” he explained.

“I’m pretty sure I had food poisoning, because it was very similar to other times I had food poisoning. Food gets prepared differently with different hygienic standards, but also the tap water is not drinkable – so maybe even brushing my teeth with it, cleaning my bottles with it could be the thing.

“Using the water to wash veggies, ice in drinks which is likely tap water, it could be those little things. I think mine though was I bought some sliced chicken from the shop, rather than the restaurant I went to.

“When I went to bed that night I already felt a little bit bad, then after two hours of sleep I woke up and had to use the toilet both ways which was logistically very difficult.”

For full details of the ins and outs, he provides even more graphic details on the podcast.