Josephine Fouts, Jason Macom secure first golds on second day of Huntsville Open

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – Paralympic hopefuls Josephine Fouts (Toledo, Ohio) and Jason Macom (Colorado Springs, Colorado) sealed their first top podium finishes in the women’s C5 (1:41:03) and men’s C4 (1:55.23) categories respectively at the U.S. Paralympics Cycling Open presented by Toyota on Sunday. Following Saturday’s time trial events, the second and final day of competition, featured road race competitions across 13 various classifications.

Dynamic duo Chester Triplett (Mooresville, North Carolina) and Michael Biessette (Belmont, North Carolina) head home with a perfect finish after securing their second gold, ending the race a full lap ahead of their competitors in the men’s BVI 72.6 km road race (1:37.40). Paralympians Oz Sanchez (San Diego, California), Oksana Masters (Louisville, Kentucky), Samantha Bosco (Upland, California) and Jill Walsh (Syracuse, New York) also went two for two in the weekend’s events as they continue their quest to qualify for the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.

More than 100 athletes came to Huntsville, Alabama for U.S Paralympics Cycling’s return to competition after a halt since early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from the Huntsville Open will decide the 14 athletes who will head to the 2021 UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup in Ostend, Belgium next month which acts as the Paralympic qualification opportunity for Tokyo. Para-cyclists will have one additional opportunity to qualify for the U.S. Paralympic Team at the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials held June 19, 2021 in Minneapolis, Minn.

QUOTES

Josephine Fouts

“Road races are my favorite. I got this new prosthetic that I wanted to try out today and it really helped me get a good sprint on Jenny [Schuble]. Huntsville was beautiful, it was super open and everything was very clean. This was amazing.”

Jason Macom

“It was a really fun race. I was trying to animate it as much as I could and try to make it as fast as possible… I went to 150 meters and gave it everything I had and was able to sit down and enjoy it. It was a great finish for me. I’m going to go back to Colorado Springs and keep training. We have a big event in Minneapolis in June and some track racing in LA, so we’ll see what happens after that.”

Chester Triplett

“Overall, it was such a great weekend. Huntsville gave us an incredible welcome back to racing and a really great course they put together. The time trial course was very technical and a lot of fun, and the same today. Today was a fast course and great preparation for going across the pond to Belgium.”

Oz Sanchez

“It was two wins that I certainly did not expect coming here to be quite honest. I’ve had some snafus with regards to my preparation in training, but I knew with the time trial and it being a very technical course, that I could lean into my experience and bike handling to pull off a podium win. Honestly with the road race my mindset was to scour out whatever resources and skills to try and fight for getting on the podium. Never did I think I would be coming out on top.”

Jill Walsh

“I’m feeling really good. I was really nervous when I first came here to Huntsville, but it all worked out. It was a good race and a great course. It’s such a mental game when you haven’t raced in so long. I’ve only raced in my basement on Zwift so getting out on the road was great.”

FULL RESULTS

Full results from the U.S. Paralympics Cycling Open presented by Toyota are available here.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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Please contact Annemarie Blanco at Annemarie.Blanco@usopc.org for photo and interview requests.