Unstoppable Jetze Plat reigns supreme in Paris

The smile on Jetze Plat’s face when he crossed the finish line over the Alexandre III bridge was as immense as his Paralympic medal collection. The Dutchman was again unstoppable, and delivered a master class to claim -for the third consecutive time- the gold medal on the Men’s PTWC race of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Silver on the day was for Florian Brungraber (AUT), while Plat’s teammate Geert Schipper managed to hold on and claim the bronze medal.

Italy’s Guiseppe Romele delivered an impressive swim and was the first to get out of the 750m swim on the Seine river, where the current was slightly slower than in the previous days, but unfortunately for him all the time he gained in the water turned into a disaster as he didn’t follow the prescribed course right out of the first transition, a movement that will end up with his disqualification.

Plat was only 1 minute behind the leader out of the water, despite the interval start in this class that has Plat -and all the H2 athletes- starting the race three minutes after the H1 class. But from the moment he was on the handbike, the Dutchman started a frantic chase and by the time the men were on the second lap of the bike course, he was already leading the race.

From that moment, it did look like a déjà vu, with the rest of the field battling for the other two positions on the podium. Brungraber made up some ground and moved to the second place before heading to the second transition, while behind him, Schipper and Romele were battling up close for the third place.

It will end up being Schipper who would hold on to the third place, despite a malfunction on his handbike that had him with only one gear for most part of the cycling segment.

After another flawless run from Plat, the Dutch crossed the finish line in the first place to claim his third consecutive gold medal at the Paralympics. “I’m mostly just relieved. Now I’m already focusing on my next competitions. I’m looking at the bigger picture. There’s still some pressure and stress”, said the Dutch, who is targetting a total of four medals in Paris, including Para triathlon, Road cycling, time trial in cycling and marathon, all og them in the next 5 days.

“Today felt like a bit more than (just) a warm-up. There was a running clock to go with it, so I still had to go fast (laughs). I was a bit nervous for the swim today. Luckily, I am quite a good swimmer, so I could use my power in the event. On the way back (on the swim), the sun was quite low so it was a bit difficult to navigate.  But at some point (on the run segment), I actually started to think about the cycling road events already, because I knew I was winning,” he said.

Silver medal was for a delighted Brungraber, who repeated the same place he got in Tokyo 2020. “This means a lot. I have worked for this for three years. I hoped this race would look just like it did today. It’s a pleasure for me to reach second place. For sure it is a good result”, he explained.

Not so happy with his result was Schipper, despite the bronze medal to add to his tally. “To be honest, I rather would have had the silver medal. It was possible. That’s what I’m a bit bummed about. On the other hand, I didn’t want to finish outside the medals here, because that happened in Tokyo (where he finished fourth). I just wanted to get a medal and at least I made that happen”, he said.

Fourth on the day was Louis Noel (FRA), followed closely by Giovanni Achenza (ITA), who rounded the top five. On his sixth Paralympic Games, Nic Beveridge (AUS) crossed the finish line in sixth place, while seventh position was for Fethi Zouinkhi (TUN), one of the receipents of the World Triathlon Development grants.