With the qualification window for the 2024 Paralympic Games open, world-level Para-Triathlon events have been coming thick and fast.
The World Para Cup in Long Beach came barely a week after the World Para Series stop in Montreal, offering a two bites at the apple in North America for athletes to score points towards their Paralympic ranking.
After the Spanish team impressed at the previous World Para Cup in A Coruna, it fell to the American team to make some noise on home turf.
PTWC
After his win in Montreal, Howie Sanborn was perhaps the early favourite to take the gold in Long Beach. However, he came up against an inspired Florian Brungraber and struggled to land a blow against his Austrian rival.
Brungraber out-split Sanborn at every stage of the race on his way to a comfortable victory. Across the board, the American was not at the same level as a week prior. There may have been an element to which the emotional come-down following the high of Montreal sapped his energy. Either way, Brungraber’s assertive performance reiterated that the men’s PTWC category will remain a real battleground for the foreseeable future.
Joshua Sweeny claimed the bronze medal.
In the women’s race, Brenda Osnaya Alvarez won after a close battle with Emelia Perry. Osnaya had led into T1 and then extended her lead on the bike. Perry, though, produced a massive run split to close the gap. The 5km proved too short to fully close the gap and Osnaya won by 24 seconds.
Perry’s teenage compatriot, Skylar Fisher, rounded out the podium in 3rd place.
PTVI
After establishing himself at the front of the race with a dominant swim, Owen Cravens won the men’s PTVI event. The American claimed a first World Para Series win in Yokohama earlier in the season and in Long Beach added a first World Para Cup gold to his portfolio. As he continues to develop, he might just be the man to dethrone the reigning world champion, Dave Ellis, from the top of the classification.
Meanwhile, Kyle Coon beat Donnacha Mc Carthy to the silver medal after building an unassailable lead over the Irishman during the swim and bike.
Jessica Tuomela claimed the gold in the women’s PTVI event.
Her win was primarily built on the bike. During the second discipline, Tuomela out-split the runner-up, McClain Hermes, by over 2 minutes. The American was slightly better on swim and 41 seconds faster on run however she had no answer to Tuomela’s cycling power. As a result, Hermes settled for the silver medal.
Maggie Sandles won the bronze medal after pipping Leticia Freitas by a mere 5 seconds.
PTS
Chris Hammer followed up silver medal in the PTS5 category in Montreal with win in Long Beach. Leaving T1, Hammer had been a minute down on silver medallist Jairo Ruiz Lopes. With a big push on the bike, he was able to drew even with the Spaniard and set up a shoot-out over the 5km run for the gold.
To seal the win in style, Hammer clocked the fastest run of the field in 16:36 to win by 57 seconds. Ruiz crossed next to win the silver medal while Michael Salisbury came away with bronze.
The men’s PTS4 race was similarly settled on the run.
Alejandro Sánchez Palomero dropped a 11:26 split in the swim to gain a lead over Hideki Uda; the Japanese athlete swam 12:37. On the bike, Sánchez maintained his advantage, riding 30:08 to Uda’s 30:03. As it seemed the gold would be heading to the Spanish athlete, Uda began his comeback.
He dropped a monster 17:36 run split which was 2 mins 2 seconds quicker than Sánchez’s effort. Uda therefore claimed the win by a decent margin. Sánchez finished in 2nd while Erik Hultquist was next home in 3rd place.
Kini Carrasco won a back to front race in the PTS3 category. After logging the slowest swim of the field, his prospects looked somewhat slim coming out of T1. Anyone that doubted him at that point, though, would soon be eating their words as he produced the fastest bike and run splits of the field to claim a comprehensive victory.
Achileas Stamatiadis had been the second-slowest swimmer but likewise recovered to elevate himself into 2nd place. Björn Maas then secured the bronze medal.
The men’s PTS2 race saw an American sweep of the podium. The race, however, was not particularly close.
Mohamed Lahna jumped into a substantial lead after smashing the quickest swim and bike splits. Neither Adam Popp nor Kyle Stepp were able to get close to him and so had to settled the silver and bronze between themselves as Lahna sauntered to the win.
Popp managed to distance himself from Stepp thanks to his field-leading run split of 21:57. With Popp safe in 2nd place, Stepp crossed in 3rd.
Yukako Hata was the only woman in the PTS2 race but nonetheless took care of business professionally to secure the World Para Cup gold.
A two-woman field contested the PTS3 category. Kenia Yesenia Villalobos Vargas took the win over Juaisca Rodriguez who was making her international debut.
Kelly Elmlinger then annihilated the field in the women’s PTS4 race as she crossed almost 12 minutes ahead of her closest rival, Kelly Worrell. The bronze medal went to Atalia Neto.
It was a similar tale of dominance in the women’s PTS5 race. Kamylle Frenette recorded the best splits in all three disciplines to win by 12 minutes 50 seconds. Petra Lévay eventually crossed in 2nd place while Leah Kaplan took 3rd place.
You can view the full results here.
