When are Podiums not enough? The Paratriathlon points chase for Paris.

Athletes on the Edges

The process itself was quite straightforward for the most part. The Top 9 athletes in each classification, aside from PTS3 women, qualified by ranking and then 16 universality slots were assigned across the classifications. PTS3 women athletes were given 5 slots but their points had to be gained from results in PTS4 competitions.

Points scored in World Cup, World Para Series, World Championship and Continental Championships counted with 450 points for a win in a World Cup, the lowest scoring events but with the most opportunities. The best 3 scored counted for each athlete. Looking at the points scored by the 9th eligible athlete, last automatic qualifier, in each class we can see a pattern emerge where it required an average of 3 World Cup wins to secure a slot on the men's side and 2 wins and a second place in the women's categories.

The difficulty of making it really shows when we look at the best ranked eligible athletes not to gain an automatic or universality slot. Among the 6 men's classifications those 6 athletes accumulated 20 podiums between them. Another 9 podiums were won by the women just missing the cutoff. Donnacha McCarthy along with guide Sean Husband raced 12 times across 4 continents scoring 2 seconds places, 2 thirds and 2 fourths in World Cups, along with a top 6 in both the European Championships and a World Para Series race finishing on the same points score as the last universality place in the PTVI class. Their margins were so fine they missed out on 2 wins by a combined total of 19 seconds.

In 9 World Cup and World Para Series races Tom Williamson was never out of the Top 6 and had 5 podium places yet also fell short. Williamson also came within seconds of securing better results across his races. It is also worth considering that both the McCarthy/Husband team and Williamson were in the most competitive categories of the entire process. 

The Women's PTS3 category was combined with the PTS4s. While there were dedicated slots available, athletes had to score based on the combined overall times and finishing within the points cutoff percentage of the winners time. Rachel Watts of the USA competed in 7 events but only scored points in one despite being on the podium in her own PTS3 category in each. If the winner of her only points scoring race, Kendra Herber, had been 3 minutes faster in Taranto, Watts would not have scored. This shows the rewards of the right race at the right time as Herber had been beaten by 7 minutes the previous week in Vigo. 

The Future

Are there any take-aways for future qualification runs. For the top 3 or 4 athletes, as in the Olympic process, they are not under the same pressures as those on the edge of qualification. Those athletes must be ready to perform from day one. While 2nd and 3rd placings in World Cups may count in the end as supporting scores and maintaining an athletes World Ranking, getting wins on the board or Top 3s in World Para Series races is vital. Picking the right races and being ready to skip the ones where the field looks too strong can be the difference in the end.

While the costs are high just getting athletes to the races there is no doubt that having support staff at events pays off. Whether it is getting supplies or booking restaurants, organizing transport, setting up warm up areas, course walk throughs, checking penalty boards it can be seemingly small things that will make a difference. 

With only 80 places available at each World Cup and WPS event across all categories just getting on the start list is hard. Planning ahead to build a World Ranking, on which starts are allocated, can be very beneficial. From a federation perspective we are now well past what might be termed easy opportunities and all slots are hard won.

We will look at the upcoming events in Paris, the contenders and chances for Irish athletes in an upcoming post.

Contact

If you are interested in Paratriathlon or already compete and are interested in support or coaching you can get in touch via the contact form.

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