Dutch paratriathlete Jetze Plat backed up his lead in the ITU rankings after his dominant win in the second stop of the World Paratriathlon Series held this Saturday in Iseo (Italy). The Dutch, current Olympic champion and world champion, proved that he is the strongest competitor at the moment in the field, while Aussie Lauren Parker claimed her first victory in a WPS of her career only one year after the bike crash that left her paralysed.
But overall, the winner of the Iseo Paratriathlon Series was Great Britain, with British paratriathletes claiming four gold medals, while USA and Russia both claimed two golds and France, Australia, Spain and the Netherlands one each.
PTWC
In the Men’s PTWC class things were business as usual, with Plat dominating since the first strokes in the water of the lake. Behind him, his teammate Geert Schipper and Bill Chaffey (AUS) tried to chase him but the handbike proved to be the best left for the Dutch, finishing the 20km ride clearly in first and second place. Behind them, Joseph Townsend, the British Royal marine comando tried to recuperate the time lost on the swim and when it all came to the run, he was already in third place, which he kept until crossing the finish line. The three of them repeated then the Yokohama WPS podium, and are the clear favourites for this year’s World Championships.
In the Women PTWC category, Aussie Lauren Parker knew that had great chances of getting her first ever WTS victory and the young paratriathlete went for it since the beginning. Her powerful swim put her in second place out of the water, only behind Margret Ijdema (NED), and knowing that she had to build up quite a lead in order to keep marathon expert Wakako Tsuchida behind, she started working hard in the bike segment. Even loosing almost four minutes in the last section in the run, the Aussie grabbed in Iseo the first WPS victory of her short career, only one year after the accident that left her paralysed, and is now fighting to be on top of the podium at the end of the season.
PTS2
The PTS2 races both went the way of the US with Mark Barr and Allysa Seely winning the men’s and women’s respectively. Barr managed to cross the finish line in first place with almost one minute difference over British Andrew Lewis, while Mohamed Lahna, racing for the ITU flag, claimed the third place, , just a few seconds ahead of Spaniard Lionel Moreales.
In the women’s race, the victory was for the American Seely, with an impressive…
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