Jetze Plat completed a hat-trick of Paralympics paratriathlon victories at Paris 2024 on Monday, and this was just the start of his adventure in the French capital.
The mighty Dutchman will also compete for gold in three other events during this Games – the H4 para cycling, then the road race and then the T54 marathon. Quite incredible. That schedule of course was hampered somewhat by the uncertainty over when the paratriathlon would actually take place.
That uncertainty was finally ended late on Sunday when it was confirmed that the water quality in the River Seine was good enough for athletes to swim on Monday.
First things first though, and the men’s PTWC race for paratriathletes, and the 33-year-old superstar from Amsterdam began his Paris 2024 bid with yet another brilliant gold medal. Florian Brungraber of Austria claimed the silver medal with another Dutchman Geert Schippers grabbing bronze.
Swim – Romeli leads, Plat stalking
Plat, who started three minutes after some of his rivals (see our guide for a full rundown on how every category works), had cut that gap to 1:48 by the time he was lifted out of the Seine to end the 750m swim. In front it was Italy’s Giuseppe Romeli (11:31), exactly a minute ahead of Australia’s Nic Beveridge. Third was another Italian Giovanni Achenza (12:54), followed by the stalking Plat (13:19).
Schipper was another medal contender from the Netherlands, and he was just over a minute behind his compatriot (14:21) following the swim. Brungraber meanwhile was just under a minute away from Plat after clocking 14:15 for the swim.
Bike – Jetze takes control
The big story in T1 was that it was heartbreak for the Italian Romeli, who had been disqualified for riding through the transition area. He remained out on the course, but in terms of contending for medals his day was sadly done.
Back at the front of the race though Plat quickly made his dominance tell on the bike as he stormed into the lead and built an advantage of over a minute to Schipper and Brungraber by the 12km mark. He was on the road to gold yet again. By the 14km mark Plat’s lead was 1:25 over Brungraber with Schipper 1:32 away in the bronze medal position.
Plat was relentless at the front as he continued to further build his advantage, and by 18km he was 90 seconds clear of Brungraber with Schipper struggling to go the pace. He was now 2:03 back in the bronze medal position. It looked very much like these three had the podium positions locked up barring a disaster.
Jetze arrived in T2 alone as he moved from his handcycle to a racing chair for the run some 1:26 ahead of Brungraber, who was valiantly attempting to stop that gap growing further. Schipper was 2:19 back in third, and he had a comfortable 1:38 advantage over Achenzi in fourth.
Run – It’s gold again for mighty Plat
The athletes had four laps of the run course to complete, a 1.1km to start followed by three laps of 1.3km. And barring absolute disaster Plat began that run knowing he had one hand very much on that third Paralympic gold medal.
The first run split had the gap between Plat and Grunbraber staying pretty consistent, with the Dutchman holding a 1:31 edge over his Austrian rival. Schipper meanwhile looked relatively safe in third.
With just over 1km to go it was Plat still in front with that gap holding firm at around the 1:25 mark while Schipper was 2:17 away in the bronze medal position.
There was no stopping the relentless Plat and he took the tape in a time of 58:16 to claim that incredible hat-trick of Paralympic titles. He was 1:10 clear of silver medallist Brungraber, with Schipper claiming the bronze.
Paratriathlon results at Paris 2024
Monday September 2, 2024
PTWC Men
- 1. Jetze Plat (NED) – 58:16
- 2. Florian Brungraber (AUT) – 59:26
- 3. Geert Schipper (NED) – 1:00:20
- 4. Louis Noel (FRA) – 1:03:40
- 5. Giovanni Achenza (ITA) – 1:03:49
