The third stop of the World Para Series in Montreal, Canada, saw a number of tight battles for the gold. With points towards qualification for next year’s Paralympic Games on the line, several athletes also stepped up to lay down an early marker.
PTWC
Prior to Devonport earlier in the year, Howie Sanborn had never won a World Para Series event. From the start of the race in Montreal, Nic Beveridge and Jumpei Kimura were intent upon proving that the Americas champion’s win was an anomaly.
Beveridge pushed a high pace in the water and gained 44 seconds over Kimura. By comparison, Sanborn struggled and emerged 1 minute 37 seconds behind the leader. In the early stages of the bike, then, it appeared that Beveridge and Kimura had managed to distance the American and would fight out the gold between them.
Sanborn, though, had other ideas.
He dropped a bonkers split on the bike, out-riding Kimura by 2 minutes 10 seconds and Beveridge by a further half minute. By the time he arrived in T2, he had turned the race on its head and held a substantial lead.
Over the final 5km, Sanborn then clocked a rapid 12:59 to seal the gold by 1 minute 15 seconds. The fastest final split of the day, though, actually went to Beveridge. Hitting a time of 12:57, the Australian was able to beat Kimura, the winner in Yokohama, to the silver medal. It was a timely reminder of the danger he poses to his rivals.
With the likes of Jetze Plat and Florian Brungraber still to return to the fray, the fight for the podium in the men’s PTWC class could get intense.
In the women’s race in Montreal, Kendall Gretsch jumped into an early lead in the swim. Lauren Parker emerged 30 seconds back and then managed to bring the pair to level-pegging over the course of the bike.
However, the race was not as simple as it seemed.
As Gretsch is a H2 athlete, she has a different handicap level to Parker (who is H1). After the race, an equalising factor would therefore be added to her final time. If she was to have any hope of winning, Gretsch needed to build a big lead on the run, and fast.
While she managed to out-split Parker by 66 seconds, it ultimately was not enough and Parker claimed the gold medal by over 2 minutes. At the same time, Gretsch did succeed in holding off Jessica Ferreira. Like Parker, Ferreira is a H1 athlete and so had her time adjusted. When all was said and done, she ended up 20 seconds away from the silver medal.
PTS
Men
After a win at the World Para Cup in A Coruna, Lionel Morales arrived as one of the men to beat in the PTS2 class. His confidence showed in the water as he led the swim with Wim De Paepe.
While Morales and De Paepe pushed clear, Mohamed Lahna managed to recover on the bike to recoup the minute lost in the first discipline. Alongside Lahna, Stephane Bahier had also lost a minute. Not content to simply catch the leaders, the Frenchman blasted ahead to seize control of the race.
As he left T2, then, it was Bahier’s race to lose.
Lahna was the second man to emerge from T2 and began to hunt Bahier. Meanwhile, De Paepe had a better T2 than Morales and gained 24 seconds over the Spaniard.
Yet something was brewing.
Maurits Morsink had lost 6 minutes to De Paepe and Morales in the water. He out-split both by 2 minutes 40 seconds on the bike to narrow their advantage. Still, as Bahier surged even further ahead, Morsink seemed out of contention.
With a split of 43 seconds, Morsink was the only man to get through transition in under a minute. Then he unleashed the dogs of war.
He ripped an 18:18 5km to power through the the front. As he did so, the four men ahead of him were switching places in a game of snakes and ladders. Bahier lost time as Lahna seized the lead. Next De Paepe passed Bahier and tried to hold off Morales. Throughout it all, Morsink picked off each man until he hit the front. From there, he did not look back as he soared to the win.
Lahna held on for silver but Morales was closing on De Paepe for the bronze. Morales was the second fastest runner with a split of 21:26 but could not bridge the final 15 seconds to De Paepe. The Belgian therefore took bronze.
In a slightly less dramatic event, it was a two-man race in the PTS3 category.
Nico Van Der Burgt got out to a lead in the swim. During the bike, though, Cedric Denuziere hauled himself up to the front. The pair arrived in T2 within striking distance of one another.
Van Der Burgt had the better run on the day and claimed the win. Denuziere had to settled for silver while Justin Godfrey took bronze.
Although plenty of pretenders lined up to take a shot at his crown, Alexis Hanquinquant demonstrated why he is the number 1 ranked Para-triathlete in the world as he cruised to the win in the PTS4 race.
With a time of 9:56, he was the only man under 10 minutes in the swim. Indeed, Antonio Franko of Croatia was the only other man under 11 minutes as he swam 10:58. By the time the rest of the field made it onto the bike, Hanquinquant had vanished up the road.
For good measure, Hanquinquant added the fastest bike and run splits of the day to win by a dominant 3 minutes 50 seconds.
The race for silver and bronze, though, was very much alive.
Franko extended his lead on the bike however Carson Clough limited the damage. So too did Alejandro Sánchez Palomero, the bronze medallist from A Coruna. Hideki Uda and Nils Riudavets Victory were a little further behind but had still positioned themselves to strike out of T2.
With athletes lining up behind him, Franko had to pin his ears back and attack the 5km. Although Clough caught him, Franko’s early pace was enough to see him hang on for bronze.
In front of a home crowd, it looked like the PTS5 race would be a coronation for the Canadian world champion, Stefan Daniel.
Filipe Marques led the swim in 10:13 but Daniel was next out in 10:40. When Daniel then rode up to the Portuguese athlete, the narrative seemed set. Known for his speed on the run, Daniel was the obvious favourite to see out the rest of the race.
Ronan Cordeiro, the winner of the race in A Coruna, and Chris Hammer both lost time in the swim. Cordeiro also slipped further behind Daniel on the bike but Hammer was able to catch the Brazilian, Together, they worked to limit the lead of Daniel and Marques.
Daniel quickly dispatched Marques on the run and set his sights on the gold medal. From a minute down, though, Cordeiro and Hammer commenced their charge.
With every kilometre, Daniel’s advantage shrunk. Closer and closer Cordeiro and Hammer drew. However, Daniel had done enough and took the win by 13 seconds.
At the last, Hammer out-kicked Cordeiro to claim the silver medal by 5 seconds while the Brazilian earned the bronze.
Women
After losing time to Melissa Stockwell and Yukato Hata in the swim, Hailey Danz came thundering back on the bike to build an insurmountable lead into T2. To complete her victory, Danz then out-ran the silver medallist, Stockwell, by 1 minute.
Hata was the third finisher and ended up with bronze.
However, the main talking point of the day was the youngster, Grace Brimelow.
Born in 2007, the Australian was making her second international start after winning the Oceania Para-triathlon Cup in Busselton earlier in the year. In Montreal, Brimelow dominated the race, logging the fastest split in all three disciplines. Indeed, she out-rode Danz by over 4 minutes and then out-ran her by 2 minutes.
A disqualification, though, took away what should have been a monumental victory for Brimelow.
Regardless of the result, the Australian champion certainly made her presence known in Montreal. Assuming there are no further issues with disqualifications, she seems ready to dominate the class for the foreseeable future.
Kenia Yesenia Villalobos Vargas of Mexico was the only woman in the PTS3 class. Having claimed the Americas title earlier in the year, she added a gold medal in Montreal.
Another Americas champion dominated the PTS4 class.
Kelly Elmlinger had already claimed the win in Yokohama earlier in the season. To make it two World Para Series golds in 2023, she cruised to a comprehensive win in Montreal.
Her young American teammate, Emma Meyers, out-swam her but once Elmlinger got onto the bike the field did not see her again. A swift 22:06 5km saw her break the tape 3 minutes 28 seconds ahead of Meyers.
After a silver in Devonport and a bronze in Yokohama, Meyers has proven herself a worthy opponent at the top level of Para-triathlon. Despite being Elmlinger’s junior by 27 years, she has been among the most consistent of her rivals lately. In a few years, as Meyers continues to improve, there will likely be a shift in the balance of power.
Kendra Herber won bronze to make it an American sweep of the podium.
Having beaten Lauren Steadman in A Coruna, Grace Norman did it again in Montreal.
Kamylle Frenette of Canada led the swim in the women’s PTS5 race but Norman and Steadman were right on her feet. Once onto the bike, the gold and silver medallists from the Tokyo Paralympic Games promptly dropped Frenette to decide the gold between themselves.
As had been the case in A Coruna, though, Steadman had no answer to Norman on the run.
The American therefore added another gold to her bulging collection. Ahead of their next match-up, Steadman will have to figure out how to overcome Norman’s impressive run. Having done it before, she will be confident of finding a way to the gold.
Frenette took the bronze to give the Canadian team another medal to celebrate.
PTVI
Héctor Catalá Laparra (B2) won the men’s race in comfort. He had swam with Oscar Kelly (B3) but then proceeded to drop the Brit on the bike. Kelly actually out-ran Catalá but the Spaniard’s lead was too great. Kelly therefore settled for 2nd place.
Kyle Coon (B1) of the Netherlands rounded out the podium in 3rd place.
Once again, Susana Rodriguez (B1) was too good for the field in the women’s PTVI race.
After McClain Hermes (B1) out-split Rodriguez in the swim, the Spaniard rallied to record the fastest bike and run times of the day. That was enough to see her cruise to the win by over 5 minutes.
Chloe Maccombe (B3) overcame Heloise Courvoisier (B3) to take the silver medal while Courvoisier followed up her silver medal from the Besancon World Para Cup with a bronze.
You can check out the full results from Montreal here.
