One year on from the mechanical that
ended his Paralympic gold charge, England’s Dave Ellis B3 was able to put his
Tokyo 2020 disappointments firmly behind him on Sunday morning, scything
through the Sutton Park course in Birmingham with guide Luke Pollard to win the
first ever PTVI Commonwealth Games gold.
The swim was near-perfect, the bike
was incident-free, and the margin of victory after a tough 5km run was over
five minutes to exciting newcomer Sam Harding B3. The rising Australian talent
had put three consistent, strong segments together to finish with silver ahead
of experienced compatriot Jonathan Goerlach B3.
“Obviously the stress of something
like Tokyo happening again means to have done that feels amazing,” said a
relieved and happy Ellis afterwards. “We didn’t know what the gap was in the
water but we caught Gerrard so we knew we were going well. To get through a
major Games and do what we needed to do is great and we can’t wait for Paris.
The crowd takes away one of your senses because the noise was amazing all the
way around the bike course, i’ve never heard anything like that.”
Gerrard Gosens B1 (AUS) was the first
man in the water as the sole B1 athlete after South Africa’s David Jones’
withdrawal, and he set about the difficult task of the 750m swim with no other
athletes to pace off. Nearly three minutes later the B3 athletes got away, and
it was Dave Ellis who again produced an outstanding swim, his time of 9m 46s
giving him a 35-second advantage over compatriot Oscar Kelly B3 who was 30
seconds ahead of Sam Harding and the leader had 70 seconds over Gosens by the
time they had all emerged from Sutton Park lake and climbed the long ramp to
transition.
Goerlach, Oliver Gunning B3 (NIR) and
Rhys Jones B3 (WAL) emerged together some four minutes off Ellis’ pace, and the
20km tandem bike got underway through the streets of Birmingham.
Oscar Kelly suffered a puncture on
the first lap and even though he was able to make it to the wheel station on
the edge of transition, the time it took to get back underway effectively ended
any chances of a medal for the rising talent.
Ellis surged away, every pass through
transition and roar of the crowd seeming to spur him on but remaining firmly
focussed on avoiding any trouble. Behind him, the race for the podium places
began to take shape, Jones, Goerlach and Harding together and preparing to take
on the 5km medal-hunt run.
Gunning was a lap back, the
unfortunate Kelly taking the bike bell just as Ellis was pulling on his run
trainers, and three minutes back it was suddenly Australia’s Harding alone and
chasing the silver. Goerlach, Jones and Gosens were now battling for the
bronze, but it was the experience of the Australian that shone through, pulling
further clear of his rivals with every stride to secure bronze, Jones and Kelly
crossing for fourth and fifth respectively.
“Since January, working with my guide
Luke, it’s been going from strength to strength,” said Sam Harding. “We raced
Dave Ellis in A Coruna and that was a good test and knew we had some things to
work on coming here. He brings the standard of Para triathlon up and up, I
think competing against the best will always get the most out of yourself.
Credit to him for OTVI being at the Games here and I’ll do my best to get it
back on the calendar for 2026!”
Full men's PTVI results can be found
here. https://triathlon.org/results/result/2022_birmingham_commonwealth_games/567961?mc_cid=e3dffb931a&mc_eid=6139649918
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