The focus was on the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games with British Triathletes and Paratriathletes coming away with five medals at the Test Event.
Beth Potter secured gold on the opening day of racing, breaking away from home favourite Cassandre Beaugrand in the final moments to secure the win. Kate Waugh finished an impressive seventh while Sophie Coldwell crossed the line 20th.
On day two Alex Yee claimed Great Britain’s second gold medal in as many days, winning the elite men’s race. The Brit worked hard to remain in contention across the swim and the bike legs before kicking on in the 10km run to finish 13 seconds clear of Vasco Vilaca of Portugal in second place. Barclay Izzard, who was added to the start list with less than 24 hours noticed, secured a top 20 spot as he finished 17th while Jonny Brownlee was 51st.
Dave Ellis guided by Luke Pollard then secured a third gold medal, winning the men’s PTVI category by over a minute. Ellis had broken away from the chasers and eventually passed American Kyle Coon and his guide on the second run. He pushed on and crossed the tape ahead of Australian Sam Harding and his guide after Coon had been disqualified for not completing the right number of laps on the second run. That disqualification saw Oscar Kelly and his guide Charlie Harding promoted to fourth. Claire Cashmore added a second paratriathlon medal on day three, winning silver in the women’s PTS5 category. After spending the majority of the first run in fifth, Cashmore climbed to second on the bike leg and closed the gap to race leader and eventual winner, Grace Norman of the United States. The second run saw Norman pull clear again though and Cashmore had to settle for silver coming across the line comfortably ahead of third place Kamylle Frenette of Canada.
The team of Izzard, Waugh, Yee, and Potter then capped the week of racing off with a silver medal in the mixed team relay. After some good work on the first three legs, it was all on Potter to chase down the leaders and after passing both Claire Michel of Belgium and Emma Lombardi of France, she narrowly missed out on the top step of the podium after a sprint finish with Lauren Lindemann of Germany.
The medals continued in long distance triathlon as well. At 2023 IRONMAN Sweden, Susie Cheetham took home a bronze medal completing the course in 08:56:16, over two minutes clear of fourth placed Laura Zimmermann of Germany. Simone Mitchell was also in action but dropped out of the race on the swim.
Abigail Bedwell secured a silver medal at 2023 IRONMAN 70.3 Ireland behind Marlene De Boer of the Netherlands. She was joined on the podium by Rosie Weston who finished in third. In the men’s race Benjamin Goodfellow was the highest placed Brit as he finished fifth in 03:57:48 with James Scott-Farrington not far behind in sixth.
At 2023 PTO Asian Open Lucy Charles-Barclay put in one of the fastest swim times of the race to take fifth place. Further back Fenella Langridge crossed the line in 14th. In the men’s race David McNamee was the highest placed Brit as his time of 03:33:08 was enough to secure tenth place. Kieran Lindars and Thomas Bishop had joined McNamee on the start line, but the duo failed to finish the race dropping out on the bike and swim respectively.
