Austria's team already holds nine medals at the Paralympics in Tokyo.
The Austrian handbikers at the Paralympics in Japan won three medals again on Wednesday like the day before. While there was gold, silver and bronze in the time trial on Tuesday, in the road race with cool temperatures and rain it was one silver and two bronze medals. In the H4 class, Thomas Frühwirth and Alexander Gritsch finished second and third, as on Tuesday, and Walter Ablinger came in third after his time trial title in the H3 category.
The paraplegic athletes were responsible for medals seven to nine of the ÖPC team at these games. Before that, dressage rider Pepo Puch and triathlete Florian Brungraber had both won silver twice. The red-white-red team holds gold once, silver five times and bronze three times. This means that the yield is slightly better than five years ago in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, when it gave once gold and four times silver and bronze. There is still time until Saturday for further successes.
Dutch Plat won
The Dutchman Jetze Plat was again too strong for Frühwirth and Gritsch. Not only had he won the time trial, but had also been successful in the triathlon in front of Brungraber. After 72 km at the Fuji International Speedway, the 30-year-old had a lead of 5:43 minutes on the 40-year-old Steirer Frühwirth and 7:25 on the 39-year-old Tyrolean Gritsch. Things were tighter at Ablinger's. The 52-year-old from Upper Austria was 31 seconds behind Ruslan Kuznetsov (RPC) and Heinz Frei (SUI).
While for Gritsch it was his medal premieres at the Paralympics and Frühwirth also won silver five years ago, Ablinger now holds three Paralympics, each with two golds, two silver and one bronze.
