The PTWC races at the World Para-Triathlon Championships in Pontevedra saw a contrasting pair of races.
In the women’s event, Kendall Gretsch (H2) of America and Lauren Parker (H1) of Australia renewed their long-running rivalry. Between them, they had won the gold and silver medals at the Tokyo Olympics but Parker had since reigned undefeated.
Having not been able to find a way past her rival all season, Gretsch arrived in Spain with the knowledge that she would have to pull out all of the stops to take the gold.
Due to the differences in classification, H2 athletes started 3:38 after those in the H1 category. With her target set to Parker, Gretsch got to work.
She sliced 24 seconds off the deficit with a split of 12:05 in the water. The real danger, however, lay with Parker’s power on the bike. On a fast course, the Australian had already settled into a fast tempo and held the lead at over 2 minutes after Gretsch gained almost a minute more in T1.
In the end, Gretsch actually out-split Parker over the 19.6km. Her time of 37:59, though, failed to make a significant dent into Parker’s 38:06.
Although Gretsch had the faster run by almost a minute, Parker remained calm and took the world title by 41 seconds. Jessica Ferreira (H1) of Brazil then claimed the bronze medal.
If the women’s race had been a battle, the men’s race was even more dramatic.
Jetze Plat (H2) arrived as the defending champion and had already won the European Championships and the World Para Series stop in Swansea over the summer. To go with that, he won the Paris World Para Cup. In Paris, though, his closest rival revealed his hand.
Geert Schipper (H2), a Dutch compatriot of Plat, had pushed his teammate all the way and earned silver. The pair would thus go head-to-head once more in Pontevedra.
Further contenders were also present. Howie Sanborn (H1) won the World Para Series race in Montreal while Jumpei Kimura (H1) won the stop in Yokohama. Yet the world title became a showdown between the two Dutch athletes.
After clocking field-leading splits in the water and on the bike, Plat led Schipper by the best part of 2 minutes heading into T2. Schipper, however, had something up his sleeve.
He ripped a massive run split to close the gap and with 500m to go the pair were essentially level. Having been a dominant force for so long, it had been a while since Plat had been challenged in such a way.
The pair honed in on the line but it was Schipper that had the momentum and the power to get to the line first. In a monumental performance, he took down his esteemed teammate and took the world title.
Plat settled for silver, 5 seconds back. Florian Brungraber (H2) then took the bronze medal, finishing over a minute later.
Check out the results here.
