Paraplegic adventurer Karen Darke took part in the first para triathlon this August, beating strong competition to win a gold medal in a ground breaking event that took place in London’s Hyde park.

The Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU event attracted entries from all over the world, and was organised as a showcase event for Paratriathlon as a sport, the event being watched by Olympic representatives looking to include Paratriahlon into 2016.  

Despite never having entered a triathlon before, Karen was invited to represent Great Britain following her completion of a half iron man in 2007.  The race combined swimming 330 metres, hand biking 10 kilometres and running 3.3 kilometres (using a race-wheelchair).  The whole course was set out around - and in - Hyde park’s lake, the serpentine.  Beating a strong team from the US, Karen took first place in the women's wheelchair category, completing the course in just 00:48.06 minutes.

Karen put her success in her first triathlon down to the amount of hand bike training she has been doing over the last year; she hopes to get into the para-cycling development squad for the 2012 Olympics.  She should find out if she has been successful in mid-September.  We wish her luck and will hopefully be reporting some good news next month!