World champion Martin Schulz among winners at Besancon Para-triathlon

By Paul Osborne

World champion Martin Schulz was among 10 victors at the 2014 International Triathlon Union (ITU) Besancon Para-triathlon event, as the German strode to victory in the PT4 competition in France.

The PT4 was one of the most fiercely contested events of the day in Bescanon with 13 athletes, including former world champion and local favourite Yannick Bourseaux, bidding for the win.

It was Schulz who once again proved why he is the one to beat, however, as he came out on top of a closely fought tussle with his French counterpart to secure the victory.

Schulz came out of the water a solid 40 seconds ahead of Bourseaux coming into transition one, but a extremely strong bike leg saw the Frenchman pull level and ahead of his number one rival.

That left it up to the run to decide who would come out on top, with Schulz recording a split of 16 min 50sec to finish in 54:25, five seconds ahead of Bourseaux.

Great Britain's Clare Cunningham eventually ran out a comfortable victor in the women's PT4 event as she fended off competition by Italy's Iren Riviera.

After leading out of the water, Cunningham was blown away by the Italian in the bike leg, dropping almost 50 seconds behind as they made their second and final transition onto foot.

The Briton dug deep in the run, however, and stormed past Riviera, finishing almost a minute ahead in 1:05.40, with the Italian on 1:06.36.

Next to cross the line was French hope Gwladys Lemoussu, who finished more than eight minutes behind the front pair.

Clare Cunningham ran out a comfortable victor in the women's PT4 event at the ITU Besancon Para-triathlon in France ©Getty Images

Britain tasted more success in the men's PT5 competition as Ahmad Haseeb secured victory over France's Arnaud Grandjean and Serbia's Lazar Filipovic.

Susana Rodriguez added to her victory in Yokohama last week with another win in the women's PT5.

The Spaniard led from the front throughout the race as she finished in 1:02.09, well clear of the Dutch duo of Joleen Hakker and Odette Deudkom.

There was success for a home athlete in the women's PT2 competition as Elise Marc finished ahead of Finland's Liisa Lilja, the only other competitor in the classification.

A trio of wins for Italy came in the men's PT2 and PT3 and women's PT1 competitions as Michele Ferrarin, Alessio Borgato and Rita Cuccuru won each of their events respectively.

In the men's PT1, Dutch competitor Geert Schipper got the better of Italian Giovanni Achenza to secure the win, while Britain's Sarah Pearson finished the women's PT3 event in 1:19.07 as the sole competitor.

The next ITU Para-triathlon event is set to take place in London on Saturday (May 31) before the European Championships in Kitzbühel, Austria scheduled for June 20 to 22.

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