There were two fantastic triathlon stories at Sunday’s Paris Half Marathon as GOAT contender Jan Frodeno and middle-distance star Emma Pallant-Browne both clocked superb times.
Frodeno, the 2008 Olympic champion who went on to win every race that mattered at long course before retiring in late 2023, showed he has retained his run speed at age 44.
And Pallant-Browne was only a few seconds behind him – just six months on from giving birth to her first child – as the duo both came in the top 250 of the near 50,000-strong field.
Road and trail
German legend Frodeno has already shown his prowess for trail running since he retired, with the OCC race at UTMB, the sport’s blue riband event, a likely target.
His half marathon times in IRONMAN 70.3 races tended to hover between 1:10 and 1:12, though he registered a sensational 1:06:33 when getting the better of fellow greats Alistair Brownlee and Javier Gomez in one of the all-time classic triathlons at the 70.3 World Championships in South Africa in 2018.
And in Paris he started with an 18:20 opening 5km before throwing in 16:41, 16:29 and 16:37 splits en route to a 1:11:45 half marathon.
That’s an average pace of 3:24/km and placed him 167th out of 49,244 finishers and second in his 40-44 age category.
‘Excited to begin rebuilding’
Arguably even more impressive was Pallant-Browne’s display.
The South African-based Brit was a GB track and field runner as well as excelling in cross country before she made the move to first duathlon and then triathlon.
She’s won nearly 20 times at middle-distance but hasn’t raced since late 2024, with her and husband Jaryd Browne welcoming baby Locky last August.
And it was some return in the French capital as she went out even quicker than Frodeno with 16:40 and 16:58 splits before crossing the line in 1:12:34.
That saw her in the top 10 women overall out of 21,903 and the winner of her 35-39 age category.
She said afterwards on Instagram: “1:12 at @semideparis half marathon today 🏃♀️ had no idea what shape I was in so went out a bit hot, first 10km in 33:30 is a painful way to run it 😂🙈 but it’s a start and so excited to begin rebuilding 🙌
“thankyou so much @christopher_rainsford for getting me round and @andyhobdellahcoaching for sticking with me these 4 months of ups and downs 🙏🙏 travelling with a 6 month old’s not so fun but having Locky out there supporting was just the best!! ❤️❤️”
That’s well under her quickest IRONMAN 70.3 half marathon time of 1:16:16 – albeit that was preceded by a swim and bike.
Massive kudos to both Jan and Emma for superb performances in one of the world’s biggest half marathons.
