After winning the triathlon title here in Tokyo, Kendall Gretsch managed the rare feat of winning gold at both the winter and summer Paralympic Games.
The American has timed her race perfectly to wrest the women’s PTWC crown from reigning world champion Lauren Parker.
Parker was more than three minutes ahead of Gretsch after the swim, only to see the lead come under increasing pressure as their rival fought back.
It was an exciting finale when Gretsch Parker hit the finish line and took victory by a narrow margin.
Gretsch came home in 1h 6min 25sec – one second ahead of Parker, who had to be content with silver .
The 29-year-old’s victory comes after she won two gold medals at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang.
She is only the fifth American to claim titles in the winter and summer Paralympics secures.
Eva Maria Moral Pedrer o from Spain was more than eight minutes behind Gretsch and Parker and took bronze in 1: 14.59.
Jetze Plat from the Netherlands triumphed in the men’s PTWC2 final and beat Austrian Florian Brungraber by two minutes.
The Dutch triathlete took the victory in 57:51, Brungraber came second in 59:55 and the Italian Giovanni Achenza took bronze in 1:02:05.
The German Martin Schulz has his PTS5 men’s title defended after beating Britain’s George Peasgood challenge.
Schulz crossed the finish line in 58:10 to take gold, while Peasgood had to settle for silver in 58:55.
After Peasgoods silver Great Britain completed the triathlon medal set and took gold and bronze in the women’s PTS5.
Lauren Steadman took silver in Rio 2016 after making a costly mistake while taking a wrong turn in the water.
The title was not too usable for her this time honor and crossed in a winning time of 1: 04.46.
Grace Norman from the USA came second in 1: 05.27 with Claire Cashmore secured another British medal with bronze in 1:07:36.
Geoff Berkeley is a senior reporter at insidethegames.biz. After joining the Midlands-based newspaper publisher Bullivant Media in 2011, Geoff rose through the ranks to become editor of the Malvern Observer and sports editor of several other weekly titles. He was then named the Worcester Warriors Correspondent for the Worcester News, where he was nominated Sports Journalist of the Year at the Midlands Media Awards in 2016 and 2017. He also worked for Sportsbeat in 2020.
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