The world’s best paratriathletes will once again do battle this week as the World Para Triathlon Championships take place in Pontevedra, Spain.
The biggest annual event in the sport’s calendar, these championships bring together physically or visually impaired athletes to compete across the three disciplines of swimming, cycling and running – while utilising specialised equipment and techniques to adapt the sport to their needs.
As well as the World Para Championships taking place on Friday, September 25, there is also the Para Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championship, which will be held on Sunday, September 27 – as athletes with different impairments compete alongside one another.
Unlike the elite men’s and women’s championships, which are decided using points gathered over the course of a season, all of the para world titles are decided by the result of Friday’s single standalone race.
Here is everything you need to know about the week of competition…
Classification system reminder
While the consistency of the classification system in paratriathlon has been welcomed for some time now, it is always helpful to be reminded of how it all works. Here is a brief guide to the six categories that will be raced in Pontevedra.
| Category | Description ** |
| PTWC | Wheelchair |
| PTVI | Visually Impaired |
| PTS 2 | Severe Physical Impairment |
| PTS 3 | Significant Physical Impairment |
| PTS 4 | Moderate Physical Impairment |
| PTS 5 | Mild Physical Impairment |
PTWC
PTWC is the category for wheelchair users. Athletes swim without a guide, complete the bike leg using a recumbent handcycle and the run segment in a racing wheelchair.
PTWC1 athletes, who have the greater degree of activity limitation, start before the less impaired PTWC2 athletes. The two sport classes compete together in a single medal event for each gender, with a compensation time between their starts.
In Pontevedra, PTWC1 athletes will start three minutes before PTWC2 athletes in the men’s race and three minutes and 38 seconds earlier in the women’s race.
PTVI
PTVI is the category for athletes with a visual impairment. Each athlete competes throughout the race with a mandatory guide of the same nationality and gender, with the bike leg completed on a tandem.
Athletes classified as PTVI1, who are totally blind or have very limited light perception, start before the partially sighted PTVI2 and PTVI3 athletes. All three sport classes compete together in a single medal event for each gender.
In Pontevedra, PTVI1 athletes will start two minutes and 51 seconds before the PTVI2/3 athletes in the men’s race and three minutes and 21 seconds earlier in the women’s race.
PTS
PTS covers the four standing or ambulant sport classes, from PTS2 to PTS5. The number reflects the degree to which an athlete’s impairment affects their ability to compete, rather than the particular nature of that impairment.
PTS2 represents the most severe activity limitation among the standing classes, followed by PTS3, PTS4 and PTS5. Athletes may use approved prostheses or other supportive devices, and each of the four classifications has its own medal event for men and women.
Start times and how to follow live
The World Para Triathlon Championships begin at 10:00 local CEST in Pontevedra on Friday, with the Para Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championship starting at 09:00 local CEST on Sunday.
The Friday start time in different parts of the world is 09:00 in the UK, 04:00 Eastern Time, 03:00 Central Time, 01:00 Pacific Time, 18:00 in eastern Australia, 17:30 in central Australia, 16:00 in Western Australia and 20:00 in New Zealand.
All categories in the individual championships comprise a 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run, with start times scattered throughout the day. Each athlete in the Mixed Relay completes a 125m swim, 3.8km bike and 800m run.
- 10:00:00 – PTVI1 (men)
- 10:02:51 – PTVI2/3 (men)
- 10:04:00 – PTVI1 (women)
- 10:07:21 – PTVI2/3 (women)
- 10:45:00 – PTWC1 (men)
- 10:48:00 – PTWC2 (men)
- 10:50:00 – PTWC1 (women)
- 10:53:38 – PTWC2 (women)
- 11:45:00 – PTS5 (men)
- 11:50:00 – PTS5 (women)
- 11:55:00 – PTS4 (men)
- 12:05:00 – PTS2/3/4 (women)
- 12:10:00 – PTS2/3 (men)
- 13:45 – Medal ceremonies
Viewers can stay up to date with events at the World Triathlon Championship Finals through World Triathlon’s official channels, while live coverage will be available on TriathlonLive.
Men’s preview
PTWC: Defending champion Thomas Fruehwirth (AUT) will be the hot favourite to retain his title as he arrives in Pontevedra with a 100% win record this year.
He beat serial podium achiever Florian Brungraber to gold last year and will need to beware his fellow countryman’s threat once again as the duo prepare for another epic battle. Howie Sanborn (USA) and Louis Noël (FRA) will also fancy their chances of creating an upset.
PTS2: The top three men from last year will once again face one another as champion Jules Ribstein (FRA) takes on Wim De Paepe (BEL) and Mohamed Lahna (USA).
De Paepe and Ribstein have been trading blows all season, while Lahna took time out to complete his epic fundraising triathlon, which saw him travel from coast to coast across the United States.
PTS3: Briton Henry Urand will be looking to complete a hat-trick of wins when he lines up in the PTS3 category. The youngster burst into the limelight in 2024 with his shock win in Torremolinos and then backed it up with success in Wollongong.
He has won all four of his races in 2026 but knows not to expect an easy ride with five-time world champion and Paris Paralympic gold medallist Daniel Molina (ESP) in the field. Cédric Denuzière (FRA) should also pose a threat.
PTS4: French superstar Alexis Hanquinquant will be looking for a ninth successive world title this week as he continues to dominate the sport in which he won Paralympic gold at both Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
Indeed, it is hard to see beyond a France 1-2-3 on Friday as fellow countrymen Pierre-Antoine Baele and Antoine Lamarche Poulain continue to be Hanquinquant’s closest threats.
PTS5: Promising to be one of the most thrilling races on the Pontevedra schedule, there are five athletes in the field who have placed at least once on the podium in the last five finals.
Jack Howell (AUS) is top of the rankings, marginally ahead of Chris Hammer (USA), while Martin Schulz (GER), Stefan Daniel (CAN) and Filipe Marques (POR) have all tasted World Championship podium success in the past.
PTVI: Paris Paralympic champion and eight-time world gold medallist Dave Ellis (GBR) will once again start as the big favourite to retain his title and claim a landmark ninth world success.
He and guide Luke Pollard came through a closely fought race to win in Wollongong last year, and it will take something very special for anyone to halt his victorious run in Pontevedra on Friday.
One man who will pose a danger is Lazar Filipović (SRB), who finished third last year and is the only man to have beaten Ellis this season – relegating the champion to runner-up in Tarragona – and will now want to replicate that on the biggest of stages.
Women’s preview
PTWC: Legendary paratriathlete Lauren Parker (AUS) arrives in Spain with a 100% record to her name this season as she looks to win what would be a sixth world championship title.
The Paralympic silver medallist will need to be at her very best, however, as rivals Jéssica Ferreira (BRA), Emelia Perry (USA) and Kendall Gretsch (USA) have all enjoyed podium success in this race over recent years.
PTS2: Anu Francis (AUS) is currently top of the women’s rankings, having won three of her four races this season and finished runner-up in the other. The woman who beat her at Yokohama, Hailey Danz, also finished second in the championship race at Wollongong last year and will be looking to go one better on Friday.
Japanese duo Asumi Yasuda and Yukako Hata are also major dangers.
PTS3: The women’s PTS3 category is perhaps the most wide open of all this week, with four of the top five ranked athletes harbouring serious hopes of coming away with the victory.
Last year’s winner Elise Marc (FRA) and runner-up Anna Plotnikova (AIN) will be expected to challenge after impressive campaigns, but Atalia Nevo (ISR) and Serena Banzato (ITA) have both won World Para Series events in 2026.
PTS4: Just as with the men’s race, the favourite comes from France, with last year’s champion Camille Sénéclauze remaining on top of the rankings thanks to an impressive unbeaten campaign.
Her closest challenger is once again expected to be Danielle Cummings (USA), who has won twice this season, while Sally Pilbeam (AUS) just missed out on a podium spot last year.
PTS5: Double Paralympic and six-time individual world champion Grace Norman (USA) will certainly take some stopping as she seeks her fifth title on the bounce.
Looking to try to bring her run of success to an end are two British athletes with previous podium success: Lauren Steadman and Claire Cashmore. Steadman has been third for the last three seasons, while Cashmore is a two-time world champion and four-time silver medallist.
PTVI: Spain’s Susana Rodríguez has been the standout performer in this category since winning her first gold medal at the Gold Coast in 2018, and the two-time Paralympic champion will be looking for an eighth world success on Friday.
Potential threats will come from Francesca Tarantello (ITA), Anja Renner (GER) and McClain Hermes (USA), but they will need to come up with something very special indeed to knock Rodríguez off her perch.
