World Triathlon

Daniel Molina’s run proved one again to be a decisive one, this time worth a Paralympic gold medal on Monday morning in Paris. The experienced Spaniard, with over a decade of racing on his shoulders - delivered an impressive run to beat Germany’s Max Gelhaar at 25 years Molina’s junior - in the PTS3 men’s race of the 2024 Paralympic Games on the debut of the class in the Paralympic programme. Bronze on the day was for the Netherlands’ Nico Van Der Burgt, who gave the Dutch team the third medal of the day.

Molina knew that it would take a lot of patience to win the Paralympic gold, but a solid swim kept him in contention throughout the first segments of the race.

Molina was indeed the first one to exit the water, but followed closely by Nico Van Der Burgt and with the member of the Refugee team Ibrahim Al Hussein. The three of them opened a small break with Gelhaar chasing them hard. In fact, the German quickly moved up before hitting the second transition in first place, with the Dutchman right at his feet.

But when it all came to the run, Molina knew he had more chances than anyone. The Spaniard delivered one of his signature runs to move back to the lead of the race before the end of the second lap to then cross the finish line all smiles to earn the Paralympic gold.

“I feel very, very happy. Today has been the best day of my sporting career. Everything went really well”, explained a delighted Molina, who was congratulated by Queen Letizia of Spain in the mixed zone. Talking about how it felt to be rcing at the paralympics twinty years after he made his debut in Athens 2004, in para athletics, he said: “I just wanted to enjoy it, to go for it. Of course, I knew I was in with a chance. I went in with a very different mindset (compared with Athens 2004). It was all about the gold. From the beginning, this was my goal and I made it happen. This is just the greatest feeling ever.”

Second on the line was Gelhaart, who was indeed “extremely happy about the silver medal”. “It was a good race for me. The first meters of the swim were very hard for me. But after the first point it was OK. On the bike I could go into the first position. The cobblestones are not my biggest problem. The run was OK.”

“It’s very nice. You never know what to expect, because a lot of strong guys are competing. I know I’m quite good at the swim and bike events, so after the cycling I know what the gap with the others would be - then I know what’s possible. After the cycling, I knew I would be able to bring that medal home if I didn’t do anything crazy, like tripping over my own feet in the run. I gave it my all and I’m happy to be here with that (bronze) medal,” explained Van der Burgt, bronze medallist.

The chocolate medal was for UK’s Henry Urand, one of the newcomers of the sport, who also had the the second fastest bike and run splits on the day but not enough to overcome the four minutes deficit he had on the water.

Cedric Denuziere (FRA) rounded the top five, whith Al Hussein finishing in a remarkable 6th place and another Spaniard, Diego Lardón Ferrer, in 7th.  Korea’s double-arm-amputee Hwang Tae Kim, for whom the swim in the Seine is a titanic effort, managed to cross the finish line in 10th place.