Having qualified Australia for a berth in the men’s PT2 classification and all but secured his Paralympic debut in the process, WAIS scholarship athlete Brant Garvey provided further evidence of his Rio potential last weekend by claiming a silver medal at the Yokohama ITU World Paratriathlon Event in Japan.
The popular West Aussie last month officially earned Australia a spot on the start line in Rio for September’s Paralympic Games when he recorded a podium finish at an ITU event on the Gold Coast and the 31 year-old reinforced his credentials with an excellent campaign in the port city of Yokohama.
In one of the races of the weekend, Garvey entered the final running discipline in first place, but was edged to the line by Germany’s Stefan Loesler, who claimed victory by a narrow eight second margin in the closing stages.
Garvey will take away not only a silver medal but a large degree of confidence, after he broke new ground in his cycling leg, to ride under his self-targeted 35min goal for the first time when he clocked 33:33mins over the 20km effort.
The Trigg resident was also fastest of the competing field in the opening swim and was quickest across both transitions, signalling his improving talent as he heads towards a Paralympic debut in the sport which will also feature at Paralympic level for the first time in Rio.
Heading into closing 5km run, Garvey held a decent lead over Loesler, but such is the German’s running ability, his time of 20:46 helped him to an overall effort of 1:10:17, which was just ahead of Garvey’s total of 1:10:25 (following a run time of 23:11), catching him in the final 50m.
Australia’s Paratriathletes enjoyed a successful campaign in Japan with Bill Chaffey (PT1) and Kate Doughty (PT4) both winning gold in their respective classes as the squad builds towards the 2016 Paralympic Games.
