The Great Britain paratriathlon team won two gold, three silver and three bronze medals in Rotterdam at the ITU World Championships. Dave Ellis and Andy Lewis were the gold medal winners as part of a huge team performance.

Wet and slippery conditions combined with a highly technical course meant that tensions were high this morning when the race started over an hour late due to cold temperatures. However, the Great Britain Paratriathlon team more than met pre race expectations with their haul of eight medals.

Paralympic champion, Andy Lewis, retained his world title in the PTS2 race despite a major cycling crash in June which could have ended his season. He said: “That was really tough out there today with those conditions.”

Commentating on his training crash, he added: “I damaged my shoulder, I’ve had stitches in my knee and in my hip, and I wasn’t expecting that today.”

Dave Ellis made a successful return to paratriathlon having last won the ITU world title in the visually impaired category in London in 2013. He and his guide, Carl Shaw, were too strong for American Aaron Scheidies on the run and won by twelve seconds.

Ellis said: “We were hoping to win, we knew we were in the top two. We just managed to hold on ‘til the end. I’m really happy with that.”

Silver medals were won by Jade Jones, Lauren Steadman and Steve Crowley. Jones is a double Paralympian in wheel chair track athletics, but was surprised to win silver in her first global paratriathlon. She said: “Coming into this I would have liked to have come top five, and that was my aim, but to come away with a medal; I’m really really pleased.”

Steadman got much closer to PTS5 Paralympic champion, Grace Norman (USA) than she did in Rio. Just four seconds separated them at the finish. She said: “Four seconds, it’s a bit annoying, but after my seven months off, dissertation and everything that’s happened, I couldn’t have thought of a better way to finish the season.”

Steve Crowley added PTS4 world silver to the European silver he won in June. He commented: “It’s a good result, I wasn’t expecting silver to be honest. Silver at the world’s, I’d take that all day long.”

Melissa Reid, Fran Brown and Joe Townsend won bronze medals. Townsend’s bronze was one of the highlights of the day, reward for many years of hard work for the Afghanistan veteran, who was sixth in Rio last year.

George Peasgood also moved on from his Rio performance with fourth place today and Ryan Taylor was fourth despite mechanical issues with his bike which cost him a medal.

Head Coach, Jonathon Riall said: “It’s been an absolutely exceptional day. The preparation has been superb. We had a couple of athletes who potentially didn’t get the medals they deserved through mechanicals and crashes but overall, absolutely superb day.”