WAIS athlete Sally Pilbeam has won a world championship title at the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Championships in Chicago.
Pilbeam was part of an Australian gold rush at the Championships with her success flanked by wins to fellow Australians Bill Chaffey (PT1) and Katie Kelly (PT5) all within an incredible 30 minute period.
The Australians, under head coach Corey Bacon, showed why they are quickly becoming a major international force with the team making its presence felt just 12 months out from the sport’s debut at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Pilbeam, the Perth schoolteacher and mother of two, who lost her right arm to cancer, successfully defended the title she won in Edmonton last year in the PT3 category finishing clear of fellow Aussie Kerryn Harvey in a quinella finish for Australia.
The World Championships is the highest level of competition available, to Pilbeam, with the PT3 classification not part of the Paralympic program in 2016.
WAIS was also represented in the men’s PT2 classification with Brant Garvey finishing in sixth place as he chases a ticket to Rio.
Garvey set a new personal best in Chicago after he crossed the line in 1:14.42, over a minute clear of any time he has achieved previously.
The Wally Foreman Foundation scholarship recipient, who used his funding to acquire an improved cycling prosthetic leg earned valuable ranking points in his quest to be among the first athletes to represent Australia when Para-Triathlon makes its Paralympic debut in Rio.
The top seven athletes at the end of the qualification period in 2016 will earn selection, with Garvey currently well in contention to earn a place, as evidenced by his sixth place finish on the weekend.
In the elite men’s competition, WAIS athlete Ryan Bailie finished 10th to secure a sixth place ranking for the 2015 season.
Bailie has been consistent throughout the international season and is well placed to mount a serious selection pitch for next year’s Rio Olympic Games.
Bailie’s time of 1:46.13 rounded out the top ten, with victory going to Spain’s Mario Mola (1:44.53), ahead of compatriot Javier Gomez (1:44.57) and South African Richard Murray (1:45.35).
