The second World Para Series event of the season took place in Yokohama at the weekend. You can read the breakdown of the first race in Devonport here.
PTWC
Lauren Parker won the women’s PTWC classification after a close battle with Kendall Gretsch.
Parker and Gretsch had identical times in swim, with both recording splits of 12:09. While Parker had the better bike split, Gretsch enjoyed the superior run. In the end, once the difference of 3 minutes 38 seconds between H1 and H2 athletes was factored in, Parker won by 67 seconds.
Jessica Ferreira of Brazil won the bronze medal.
The men’s race saw a return of the podium from Devonport.
Jumpei Kimura powered to big lead on swim and bike. In Devonport, Howie Sanborn had lost considerable time in the swim but came storming back. A similar story appeared to be on the cards in Yokohama as he began to pull back time on the run. This time, however, Kimura’s lead was too great and in the end Sanborn did not have enough road to close the gap. Kimura therefore took the win in style as Sanborn won silver.
In a repeat of his performance in Devonport, Nic Beveridge of Australia won bronze.
PTVI
In the Visually Impaired category, none of the Devonport podium won a medal in Yokohama.
Susana Rodriguez of Spain was peerless in the women’s race. Both McClain Hermes and Jessica Tuomela were withing striking distance of Rodriguez after the swim (with deficits of 14 and 31 seconds, respectively). Hermes, though, could not stop Rodriguez from extending her lead on the bike.
Tuomela actually out-split the Spaniard on the bike. Unfortunately, that only made up time she had lost in T1 and Rodiriguez’s lead remained.
On the run, Rodriguez then proceeded to put on a clinic in how to finish a race. She nudged under 20 minutes for her 5km (logging a time of 19:54) which helped her to a winning margin of over 6 minutes.
In the late stages, Hermes overhauled Tuomela to win silver in a dramatic dash for the line. Only 2 seconds separated the pair in what could be one of the closest finishes of the Para-Triathlon season.
Matching Rodriguez’s dominance was Owen Craven in the men’s race. Across the whole event, he was simply too good. After recording field-leading splits in all three disciplines, Craven took the win by over 3 minutes.
Paul Lloveras edged out Satoru Yoneoka to win the silver in another tight finish.
PTS Women
Hailey Danz made a statement in the women’s PTS2 category. She blew the field away in the swim on her way to a lead of a smidge over a minute. Melissa Stockwell and Alyssa Seely tried to respond but the gap simply grew as the swim progressed.
Seely pulled clear of Stockwell on the bike and took up the chase of Danz. In a similar vein to Jessica Tuomela in the PTVI race, Seely actually out-split Danz. However the time she lost in T1 wiped out her hard work on the bike.
When Danz arrived in T2, then, she had a comfortable lead and ran away to victory. Behind, Stockwell recorded the fastest run of the field to overhaul Seely and win silver.
After an impressive silver medal in Devonport, interest had grown as to how Emma Meyers would fare in the PTS4 race in Yokohama. Born in 2006, Meyers was the youngest athlete in the field by a hefty margin.
When she led out the swim in a time of 13:02, the omens looked good.
Close behind, however, was Kelly Elmlinger. After ceding 27 seconds in the water, Elmlinger came flying through on the bike. The gulf in experience told as Meyers lost almost 3 minutes in the second discplines alone. Crucially, though, Meyers had succeeded in keeping Sally Pilbeam behind her into T2.
As Elmlinger ran cruised to victory, Meyers fought desperately to maintain her lead. Yet the inexorable surge of Pilbeam could not be halted. Meyers eventually faltered and Pilbeam ran through to win the silver medal.
In the PTS5 race, Gwladys Lemoussu enjoyed a smooth victory. After out-splitting her rival Cristina Miranda Zambrano (the only other athlete in the category) in each discipline, she went on to win by almost 8 minutes.
No women contested the PTS3 category.
PTS Men
Stephane Bahier took the early lead in the men’s PTS2 race as Geoffrey Wersy and Mohamed Lahna lost considerable time. When Bahier out-split both on the bike, it seemed he had one hand on the gold.
However, Wersy was not done. He produced a massive run split of 19:26 – significantly faster than Bahier’s 23:23 – and as the blue carpet drew into sight Wersy managed to move into 1st place.
After leading for so long, it was a heavy blow for Bahier and he ultimately finished 13 seconds back of Wersy.
Lahna came home in 3rd, over a minute down.
In the PTS3 race, Max Gelhaar of Germany led from gun to tape. The youngest man in the category, Gelhaar was fantastic across all three sports and won by exactly 3 minutes. After kicking off his season with a bronze medal at the World Para Cup in Abu Dhabi, Gelhaar sent a clear message that he is the coming man in the PTS3 event.
Colin Wallace took 2nd place while Michael Herter finished 3rd.
Meanwhile, you have to go back to 2019 to find the last time Alexis Hanquinquant lost an individual PTS4 race. Over his career, he has 29 wins from 33 international starts and has been the supreme force in the category.
It was therefore no surprise to see him dominate the race in Yokohama.
No one could touch him over any discipline. He split 9:39 over the 750m swim, 29:01 over the 20km bike and closed the book on his opposition with a 17:06 5km run. Hanquinquant is simply an extraordinary athlete and it will likely be some time until anyone truly rivals him.
In Yokohama, Carson Clough was the best of the rest. After a solid swim, he lost time to his compatriot Eric McElvenny on the bike. Clough managed to come charging back on the run to nab McElvenny in the final kilometre.
McElvenny took bronze for his efforts, only 7 seconds behind Clough and 13 seconds ahead of Hideki Uda in 4th.
In the wake of their intense battle in Devonport, expectations were high for the rematch between Jack Howell and David Bryant. Born in 2004, there is almost something enjoyably impertinent to the way Howell races; he has a real flair. Both Howell and Brynat also had to deal with the arrival of the Tokyo Paralympic champion, Martin Schulz.
The PTS5 race therefore promised to be a firecracker of a race.
First blood went to Schulz as he led the way in the water. Howell lost 30 seconds to the German but gained an important 41 seconds over Bryant. That gap did not last long, though, as Bryant roared to the fastest bike split of the day. Although Schulz still led into T2, his lead was fairly slim.
Never one to panic, Schulz simply got on with his business on the run and dropped a crushing 16:12 5km. Neither Howell not Bryant could live with that kind of speed and so the German won in comfort. Even with a 10 second penalty on the run, nothing could slow Schulz.
Bryant, though, still had to hold off his young rival.
With every kilometre, the gap narrowed.
A 30 second gap became a 20 second one. Then it dropped to 10 seconds. Bryant could practically taste the finish line but Howell kept closing. With momentum behind him, Howell edged ahead to win the silver medal by 13 seconds.
Having reversed the finishing order between the pair from Devonport, a new target will be in Howell’s eyes: Martin Schulz himself.
View the full results here.
