World Triathlon

The USA’s Chris Hammer produced Paralympic magic in Paris on Monday afternoon, the 38-year-old earning a career-first PTS5 gold medal after a monumental battle with Brazil’s Ronan Cordeiro and defending champion Martin Schulz of Germany.

Having missed out on the podium by just one place in both Rio and Tokyo, it was to be third time a charm for Hammer, who kept his cool and stayed patient despite exiting the water in 8th place. Picking his way towards the front over the 20km bike, he put himself within 20 seconds of the leader Schulz then detonated a remarkable first lap of three on the run, hitting the front and holding off Cordeiro all the way to the line.

“I don’t know if I truly believed it could be a reality until a few months ago. Now it’s reality,” said a thrilled Hammer. “The last few months were spent up at (high) altitude in Park City, Utah. I’ve never done a dedicated altitude block like that before. I didn’t know if it would work. I guess it did. I never did a work-out that gave me confidence, but my coach kept saying, ‘This will work, once we come down’. And it did.”

“If it wasn’t for those fourth-place finishes, I probably wouldn’t have been as motivated to race this time around. Fourth is painful, and it’s not. It keeps you in the sport. It was all part of the journey that led me here. I will look back on those fourth places fondly now.”

Full report to follow