It was another day of glory for
France with their top duo, Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger and Marion Legrand,
powering their way to claim the gold medal at the Duathlon 2x2 Mixed Relay of
the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama. Current world champions Arnaud Dely and
Maurine Ricour finished in the second place on a extremely hot and humid Sunday
afternoon, while the second French duo, with Nathan Guerbeur and Garance Blaut
crossed the finish line in third place to take the bronze medal.
The last day of competition of the
Birmingham World Games kicked off with the debut of the 2x2 Mixed Relay
duathlon in the programme of the World Games. 13 teams lined up for a relay of
2km run, 6km bike and 1km final run before tagging a teammate, with the new
format of man-woman-man-woman in place.
France, Belgium, the Netherlands and
Mexico lined up two teams each, with both individual champions in Birmingham,
Hueber-Moosbrugger and Ricour, vying for a second gold medal. And just from the
first meters of the run, it was clear that the fight for the podium positions
will be amongst France and Belgium, with both of their teams along with
Australia delivering strong first legs, enough to give them a bit of a break
with Team Netherlands I and II and Team Mexico I and II following in the chase
group.
It was Australia’s Samuel Mileham the
first one to hit transition, though. Still, the last leg of the run was enough
for Hueber-Moosbrugger to show his class and tag his teammate in the first
place, with Team France II and both Belgian Teams following close behind.
Legrand was quickly joined by Ricour and together they went for most part of
the second leg, with the other France-Belgium duo, Blaut and Lotte Claes,
working together throughout most part of their leg. Behind them, both Dutch
women -Ann Schoot Uiterkamp and Diede Diederiks- joined Team Australia on the
hunt for the podium positions, but already more than 30 seconds behind the
leading duos, while Japan’s Ai Ueda was trying to make up some time flying on
her running segments.
The third leg seemed to be easier for
Hueber-Moosbrugger, who had the fastest split of the day with 18:23, enough to
give his teammate enough margin to breath and relax a bit in the fourth and
final leg, knowing that even though Ricour is an excellent runner, it would be
too much of a gap to close. The Belgian was more focused on keeping Blaut, from
Team France II, behind, as the Frenchwoman was close to catching her in the
last lap of the bike, only a few seconds of a gap.
By the time the athletes faced the
blue carpet and the finish arch, Legrand had over one minute with Team Belgium,
and was all smiles when she hugged her teammate Hueber-Moosbrugger right after
holding the finish tape.
“The first leg, we were all teams
together, but Maxime managed to give me a few seconds of an advantage. I knew
that the Belgian girl was really strong on the bike but I was faster on the
run, so I just tried to keep calm and cool, and keep the 30 seconds difference
that Maxime gave me in the second leg. For me this medal was really important,
after finishing fourth yesterday. We proved this weekend in Birmingham that the
French team is really strong in Duathlon, all my teammates have at least one
medal here at the World Games, so we are all really happy”, said Legrand.
Her teammate said: “In my second leg,
Marion tagged me with a 10 secs advantage, so this was perfect, cause I knew
that I am stronger on the bike than Dely. At the beginning of the bike I really
attacked to open a bigger gap, I planned to have like a TT session, so with
that big gap before the last relay of Marion we were confident that we could
make it. France has a really strong team in Duathlon, we had a podium sweep in
the World Championships a month ago. The gold medal today is even more special
because I get to share it with m teammates, and the shared glory always feels
even better”.
Silver today was for the Belgian duo.
“It was a very hard day today, mentally and physically. My legs were very sore
and with these temperatures it was really hard, I though I was dying, but I am
really happy”, said Maurice Ricour after crossing the finish line. “The last
leg I was flat, I was really tired, so it was just all about keep calm and
avoid crashes and keeping the position so that my teammate could finish in the
second place”, explained Arnaud Dely.
Only a few seconds behind, the second
French team of Nathan Guerbeur and Garance Blaut crossed the finish line to
claim the bronze medal, while the second Belgian team - Vincent Bierinckx and
Lotte Claes- finished in the fourth place.
Behind them, Team Netherlands I
-Thomas Cremers and Ann Schoot Uiterkamp- hold on to the fifth place, and
Nethlerlands II -Joey Van ‘t Verlaat and Diede Diederiks- finish in 6th, while
Japan -Ai Ueda and Fumiya Tanaka- were 7th and Team Mexico II -Victor Emmanuel
Zambrano Gonzalez and Luisa Daniela Baca Vargas- eighth.
You can check full results here. https://triathlon.org/results/result/2021_birmingham_world_games/552457?mc_cid=060c6d2dc1&mc_eid=6139649918
ABOUT WORLD TRIATHLON
World Triathlon is the international
governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic sport of triathlon and all
related multisport disciplines around the world, including duathlon, aquathlon,
cross triathlon and winter triathlon. Triathlon made its Olympic debut in
Sydney 2000, with a third medal event, the Mixed Team Relay, added to the
programme at Tokyo 2020, while para triathlon was first added to the Paralympic
programme at Rio 2016. World Triathlon is proudly committed to the development
of the sport worldwide, with inclusion, equality, sustainability and
transparency at our core as we seek to help triathletes at all levels of the
sport to be extraordinary.
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