It was to be another classic showdown in the women’s PTS2 Paralympic races on Monday morning in Paris, and emerging on top of the best in the business was USA’s Hailey Danz, scoring her first Paralympic gold in fine style.
Out of the water right alongside her major challengers Veronica Yoko Plebani, Melissa Stockwell and Allysa Seely, it was Danz’s incredible bike power that proved decisive, opening up the huge gap that she knew she would need on the run.
Out onto the final 5km segment, Italian star Plebani tried to reel the American in but was thrilled to hold off the defending champion Seely and secure silver after her bronze in Tokyo, Seely having to settle for an exhausted bronze.
“It’s gonna take a bit to sink in, I’ve wanted this for so long,” said a beaming Danz. “There have just been so many setbacks and challenges along the way. And like, I don’t know, the voice of doubt was really loud the last couple of months. I kind of set up my training so that I was peaking here. I saw some performances earlier in the summer where I would just kind of question if it really was on the right track and what I needed to do.”
“I really just had to trust the process, trust my coach. Trust that the plan that we put in place was going to get me to peak today. And that was hard to do, but I did it. The plan worked. I had the best race of my life today. I tried to let it soak in. We were in such a special venue. Over the course of the race I just had to pause for a couple of moments and take in this incredible place that we’re in. Seeing my family, my girlfriend, my whole staff and teammates in the stands bringing me in.”
At the end of a punishing 750m swim, and headlong into a stiff current on the return portion, there was nothing to call between the top four, Danz making the quickest progress into transition ahead of Seely and Plebani as Stockwell dropped back in pre-transition and was never able to recover the lost time.
The course of the race settled into its rhythm after two of five laps, Danz absolutely flying and fearless into the corners to carve out 40 seconds to Seely and Plebani, the Italian then able to work clear into second over the second half of the 20km bike, Stockwell now two minutes adrift.
Australia’s Anu Francis smashed the bike to pass Seely late on and start the medal hunt 2m30s back out of T2, the American defending champion now three minutes off Danz who started to believe more with every passing kilometre.
Plebani was on a mission to reach her, but the gap off the bike was unassailable. Seely was now back in the hunt for the silver, too, having passed Francis, but Plebani was too strong. As she turned the corner for the blue carpet, Danz was taking the tape with a huge smile, Italy’s bronze medallist in Tokyo thrilled to be upgrading to silver, Seely settling for a hard-fought bronze ahead of Francis, Stockwell in fifth ahead of France’s Cecile Saboreau.
QUOTES:
Veronica Yoko Plebani (Silver)
“I’m just so proud of myself. I’m really amazed by what I did in the race. When I was running the last lap. I saw my dad and my coach, they were telling me I could do it. Then I knew I could. I started crying long before the finish line.”
“You know what I thought? I thought about the dress I prepared for my party tonight. And that was a silver one. So (maybe) I already knew, but also I didn’t know (laughs). It’s so stupid, but at the same time, there was a part of me that knew I could do it. I’m amazed. Triathlon is such a hard sport to train, especially with our type of disabilities. It’s hard to be in constant training. I’m just proud of the journey that took me here. One year ago it was really hard to even think I would be here. So I’m so happy and thankful.”
Allysa Seely (bronze)
“From the moment I woke up this morning I just wasn’t feeling my best. Not sure what it was. Today, I can just chalk it up, I didn’t race my best. In the water I actually felt really great and came out in a really good position, exactly where I thought I needed to be. The cobbles on the bike were really hard when you have a neurological disability. It really messes with your brain and your muscles and I couldn’t recover from that on the run to have the run I knew I needed to have.”