GB paratri squad haul medals in Hyde Park

Fielding a small team for the London ITU World Paratrithlon event, Team GB were once again big in the medal tally table.

First medal of the day went to George Peasgood, who took silver in the PT4 category. A rising star on the GB paratri squad, Peasgood was leading out of T2, but was overtaken on his weakest discipline by Canada’s Stefan Daniel.

“Today was hard but it felt comfortable,” said Peasgood at the finish line. “But the run was probably one of the best I’ve done. My run’s still improving, and I’ve still got a long way to go with it, but it’s going good.”

Second at the recent National Paratri Champs in Llanelli behind Alison Patrick (not racing in London), Melissa Reid was today teamed with guide Nicole Walters as they powered to PT5 gold in the final metres of the 5km run. The pairing are used to winning here, having been victorious in 2013 for the World Champs.

“Very happy with the results today,” said Reid post race. “Still fairly early in the season though, so we’ll see how things pan out, and we’re obviously aiming for the Worlds at the end of the season.”

220 male paratriathlete of the year, Phil Hogg, was chuffed with his third-place finish in the PT1 category.

“That was really solid,” enthused Hogg at the line. “I had a really good swim, the bike was okay – I lost focus a little bit getting overtaken straight away but I got that back together again and just kept the power on, got back into my game mode. Onto the run I felt really strong, pushing really well. So I’m really happy with the performance for sure.”

One of the strongest categories for the GB squad is the women’s PT4, where in London the reigning world and European champ, Lauren Steadman, continued her dominance at the head of the close-run category.

“I’m happy, it was good enough,” said Steadman. “I was disappointed with the swim, I got caught with somebody and it just annoyed me, but I had the bike and run so it’s fine.”

Rounding out the GB medal haul was Claire Cunningham who took PT4 silver, Iain Dawson with PT5 bronze and Lizzie Tench for PT1 silver.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ross Grieve/DGT

Liz Barrett 220 Deputy Editor

About

220 deputy editor Liz Barrett started work on the magazine in 2007 as staff writer. Since then, she’s reported live from almost every major triathlon across the globe, including the Ironman World Championships, 70.3 Worlds, six ITU Worlds, Challenge Roth, the 2014 and 2022 Commonwealths, the London and Paris Olympics and the Rio Paralympics, to name but a few. Name a pro and chances are she’ll have interviewed them, so, unsurprisingly, she’s our go-to pro-athlete expert on the team. When not covering races, you’ll find her whipping words into finely-crafted shape for both the magazine and website.