An another glorious afternoon of
triathlon at its best, Team Great Britain claimed their second Mixed Relay win
this season, with Kate Waugh running past local favourite Laura Lindemann, from
Team Germany, who had to serve 20 seconds penalty, just a few meters before
crossing the finish line. Natalie Van Coeverden, from Australia, saw the drama
unfold right under her eyes, and managed to also pass by Lindemann to claim the
silver medal in Hamburg, Team Germany holding on for the third place.
The mix of power and speed of the
Triathlon Mixed Relay took once again the streets of the Hamburg city center
for the 2022 Hamburg Wasser World Triathlon Championship Series Mixed Relay,
with thousands of spectators on the streets ready to enjoy the pure joy of one
of the most iconic events on the World Triathlon calendar. Eighteen teams lined
up this Sunday, after the last minute drop outs of team Netherlands and Team
Portugal, both of them with athletes injured after the individual races on
Saturday. On the line ups, a combination of new faces and well-known names ready
to take the stage for the Hamburg-classic 300m swim, 7km bike and 1.7km run
course of pure drama all the way to the tape.
With the change introduced this
season, it is now the men who are in charge of diving in from the pontoon, with
some teams choosing their top guns for the first leg of the relay, willing to
make an impact in the race from the first meters. That was indeed the plan of
Chase McQueen (USA), who led the 18 men out of the water along with young
Canadian Brock Hoel. Neither of them knew by then that their efforts wouldn’t
take them very long, Macqueen had issues with his chain right after transition,
and he was then passed by the whole pack, while Hoel had a flat tyre a few
meters later, his team not able to continue the race.
Meanwhile, Hayden Wilde (NZL) took
control of the race as soon as the men were on their bikes, and imposed a fast
a furious pace that was just not feasible for some of the teams, Italy was soon
dropped, and Manoel Messias and Jelle Geens tried desperately to catch up with the
leaders before making it to the second transition, but with not much luck.
Valentin Morlec (FRA) was the first
one to get on his shoes, followed by New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany and
Australia, with Igor Bellido (Spain) managing to avoid a transition crash,
Andreas Carlsson right behind him not so lucky.
It was Wilde the one tagging his
teammate Nicole Van Der Kaay first, with teams Switzerland, Australia and Japan
following close behind, and by now the chances of Team USA were gone, Taylor
Spivey second to last when she was tagged. She did a massive effort to try to
get her team back in the game, but it was not an easy task. Almost one minute
ahead of her, the race was unfolding with Sian Rainslay doing a magnificent
swim that pout Team UK back in the lead group, along with New Zealand,
Australia, Hungary, Germany and France.
It as when the athletes were about to
finish their bike segment when Lisa Tersch (GER) received a 10 seconds penalty
for swim conduct, forcing her team to try what they could to try to take a bit
of advantage to be able to maintain the leading positions. The group stayed
together, though, for the whole bike section and the two laps of the run, with
small differences among them until Rainsley was the one tagging her teammate
Samuel Dickinson in the first place. Another consistent swim had him leading
out of the water, with Hungary, Australia and Germany close behind, while
Switzerland, Denmark and New Zealand were in the chase.
It was another Kiwi, Dylan
Mccullough, who decided to make his move then and tried to breakaway on the
bike, and by the time the group behind him started to get organised, he had a
few seconds of a lead, that he kept until they dismounted. He had an easy
transition, as did Matthew Hauser for Team Australia. Not the case of Lasse
Nygaard-Priester, who stepped over the dismount line still on his bike, which
lead to a second penalty for Team Germany, both to be served by their last
athlete, Laura Lindemann.
With that thought on mind. Hauser
went full gas from the moment he had his shoes on and started opening a
significant break, with Team UK and Team Switzerland close behind him, and New
Zealand and Germany fighting for the podium positions.
By the time Hauser tagged his
teammate Natalie Van Coevorden, she had a lead of 11 seconds, which she managed
to keep even though she had to swim by herself with two fantastic swimmers
behind: Lindemann for Team Germany and Kate Waugh for Team UK. Van Coevorden
mounted her bike also solo, but soon enough she just slowed down a bit to join
her two chasers, trying to save some legs for the run, especially knowing that
Germany would have to stop for 20 seconds before crossing the finish line.
Waugh and Lindemann started a frantic
run and Van Coevorden was dropped a few meters, with the two leaders on sight
and knowing that behind her Julie Derron (SUI) and Andrea Hansen (NZL) were
chasing. The three leaders headed the last lap of the run knowing that the
drama was about to unfold under the eyes of the hundreds of spectators and indeed
it did. Right before they hit the blue carpet, Waugh and Lindemann shoulder to
shoulder, the German stopped in the penalty box for what surely were the
longest 20 seconds of her life, while Waugh headed alone to take the tape.
Also Van Coevorden passed by
Lindemann while she was stopped by the officials, to claim silver, but
Lindemann managed to keep her third place and sprinted to hug her teammates in
the finish line, taking the bronze medal.
Behind them, Switzerland and New
Zealand closed the top five of the day. Hungary finished strong in the 6th
place, followed by Emma Lombardi (FRA) on an unusual 7th place for Team France
on a Mixed Relay race.
Barclay Izzard said: “I just tried to
do my best, get Sian (Rainsley) in a good position and everyone else was
amazing as well. “I got strict instructions not to get a penalty for the team
but just so happy we got across the line for the team, that was textbook relay.
We’re a young team, we may not be the A-team but certainly the future is
looking bright for British Triathlon, ” said Samuel Dickinson. Kate Waugh
explained that she was “aware (that Laura Lindemann had a penalty) so I just
had to stick with her, I knew she would pull off at some point. I am so
excited, I am so happy for us all”.
“It was great. I got really set-up by
Luke and Sophie early on and Nat (Van Coevorden) finished really strong so I am
just really stoked to be on the beer shower again today,” said Hauser. “They
put me in such a good position and I knew if I stayed there we had a good chance
of the podium today so I am really glad we’re back and it’s great to be part of
such a great team. I don’t think we ever left, we’ve always been here and I
think we’re really persistent and never give up and I think that really showed
today and hopefully we can lead this towards Paris and we have many, many good
athletes to lead us with a great team and I am really proud of everyone today,”
explained Van Coevorden.
“It felt so long (20-seconds in the
penalty box), I was like is it over, is it over. It was a long penalty”, said
Lindemann. “That was not cool, we got away with a medal, great to be on the
podium in Hamburg and I think that we showed that we are a strong team and we
are meant to be in the front”.
Results: Mixed Relay https://www.triathlon.org/results/result/2022_world_triathlon_championship_series_hamburg/546860?mc_cid=adcf9bad0d&mc_eid=6139649918
1. Team
I Great Britain GBRGBR Flag 01:20:50
2. Team
I Australia AUSAUS Flag 01:21:03
3. Team
I Germany GERGER Flag 01:21:10
4. Team
I Switzerland SUISUI Flag 01:21:26
5. Team
I New Zealand NZLNZL Flag 01:22:12
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.
www.triathlon.org
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