Grace Norman wins second straight world paratriathlon championship

Grace Norman won her second straight world paratriahlon championship today in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Norman, a 19-year-old Jamestown resident, edged Lauren Steadman of Great Britain by four seconds in the PT5 class competition in the ITU Paratriathlon World Championships.

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Norman, who competes with a prosthetic left leg due to a birth defect, led after the swim but was passed by Steadman on the bike and then made up 18 seconds in the final lap of the run.

Norman’s winning time over the sprint-distance course — 750-meter swim, 20-kilometer bike and 5K run — was 1 hour, 9 minutes, 49 seconds.

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"It was a lot harder than I was expecting, but it was good. I'm very glad I didn't give up," Norman told TeamUSA.org. "I normally catch Lauren easily on the first lap of the run, and it wasn't that easy this time, so I think I was just a little bit more tired than I expected. I had to mentally keep telling myself, 'Stay in it, stay in it.'"

Norman, a Xenia Christian graduate who attends Cedarville University, won the 2016 world championship in Rotterdam and was a silver medalist in 2015 in Chicago. She won a gold medal in the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

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