With the
Olympic qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games just about to close on
May 27, Mexico becomes the centre of the drama that surrounds the road to
Paris, as the 2024 World Triathlon Mixed Relay Olympic Qualification Event
Huatulco is set to decide two more Mixed Relay teams on the Paris 2024 start
line. A super-sprint course of 300m
swim, 7.2km bike and 1.8km run on hot and humid conditions will be a true test
for the athletes on Friday, with the individual races of the World Cup taking
place on Saturday and Sunday.
With host
country France, Great Britain, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, USA,
Switzerland, Italy and Portugal already qualified through the Mixed Relay
rankings, each of the nine teams lining up in Mexico will know that, in the
unpredictable world of the super-sprint relay, a top-two finish and that
Olympic qualification of two men and two women is surely within reach.
The race
in Huatulco is key for most of the teams toeing the start line, since securing
a top two spot will mean qualifying for the Olympic Games athletes who have not
earned the spot by themselves on the individual Olympic qualification. This is
the case for Hungary - they have three men and one woman qualified as of
today-; Norway -two men and one woman as of today-; South Africa -two men and
one woman qualified-; Netherlands -two women and one man qualified-; Canada
-one woman, two men qualified-; and Ecuador with only one female qualified. For
other countries, like Mexico, Spain and Austria, they already have two men and
two women relatively secure on the start lists in Paris so it is likely that
they will have a team lining up in Paris next summer regardless of their
placing in Huatulco.
This
luxury of having two men and two women “safe” in the rankings for Paris has led
to some teams declining to race in the Mixed Relay Olympic Qualification Event,
such as Brazil and Belgium.
Hungary
on the hunt
Considering
that a victory in Huatulco will mean four tickets secured for Paris, Hungary is
lining up the A team to try to secure the last spot that they need. Csongor
Lehmann and Bence Bicsak flew directly from Yokohama to Mexico, while Zsanett
Kuttor-Bragmayer decided to skip Yokohama to save some fresh legs for the
Mexican heat. They will be joined by one of the rising stars of the country,
Karolina Helga Horváth, who despite being only 22 years old, she help the
Hungarian team to get the 5th place at the Junior/U23 Mixed Relay World
Championships last year.
Team
Norway knows that the only chance that their second female athlete, Lotte
Miller, can make it to the start line in Paris is by finishing top-two this
Friday in Huatulco. Miller, who has been through a series of injuries in the
last two years, has dropped significantly on the rankings, but she proved only
a few months ago that she is a reliable asset when it comes to a relay, as she
helped the Norwegian Team to claim the gold medal at the 2023 European Games in
Krakow. Norway will repeat the team that shined under the rain in Krakow: Vetle
Bergsvik Thorn, Solveig Løvseth, Casper Stornes and Lotte Miller, and they seem
to be on great form. The long run out of the water and the uphill on the bike
course can be an asset for them, known all for their bike power and skills.
South
Africa strength in numbers
South
Africa is also bringing their best athletes to Mexico, hoping to secure one of
the first two places that will give a second female a ticket to the Olympics,
as well as the opportunity for the South African team to redeem themselves of
the bad luck that they had in Tokyo 2020, on the debut of the Mixed Relay at
the Olympics, when Team South Africa was not able to take the start after Henri
Schoeman crashed during the individual race and was unable to race. The Rio
2016 bronze medallist Henri Schoeman will be leading the team in Huatulco,
along with the young rising star, Jamie Riddle, who showed with his silver
medal at the Wollongong World Cup that he is in great shape. On the women’s
side, South Africa is bringing their top three ranked females -Vicky Van Der
Merwe, Bridget Theunissen and Amber Schlebusch- and will decide which two are
doing the relay 24 hours before the start.
Both Schoeman and Riddle are excellent swimmers and experts on beach
starts like the one in Huatulco, and have proven to be really powerful under
heat and humid conditions like the ones expected during the weekend.
The Dutch
Team also needs desperately a top-two position at the end of the race, to
secure the second spot for the men, and Richard Murray, Rachel Klamer, Barbara
de Koning and Mitch Kolkman are ready to give it a try. They all seem to like
the weather conditions in Mexico, and are always a team that rises to the
occasion when it matters.
Canada
has brought Brock Hoel, Sophia Howell, Mathis Beaulieu and Desirae Ridenour to
try to fight for the second female spot for their team. All of them great
swimmers, it will be hard to follow them in the water, especially with these
choppy and shallow waters on the Pacific Ocean.
Genis
Grau, Sara Guerrero Manso, Pelayo Gonzalez Turrez and Maria Casals Mojica will
be lining up for Team Spain. Despite being a young team with not a lot of
experience, all of them have experience in sprint and super-sprint courses and
get along really well with these weather conditions. Especially Grau, who is
one of the favourites for the individual race on Sunday after finishing on the
podium here in Huatulco in the previous two world cups.
Despite
hosting the Mixed Relay Qualification Event, Mexico knows that they have
secured two men and two women through the individual rankings, and therefore
have decided to bring to this race a young team to give them more experience on
the international field. Yael Vladimir González Melendez, Mercedes Romero
Orozco, Nicolas Probert Vargas and Luisa Daniela Baca Vargas will be
representing their country this Friday, with nothing to lose and much to learn.
Team
Ecuador will be lining up Juan Jose Andrade Figueroa, three-times Olympian
Elizabeth Bravo, Gabriel Terán Carvajal and Paula Jara, while representing Team
Austria will be Tjebbe Kaindl, Julia Hauser, Alois Knabl and Lisa Perterer. For
the Austrian team, they have currently two men and two women on the provisional
start list for Paris, but they are all sitting in the last places of the
qualified athletes, so they need to secure good performances either on the
Mixed Relay or on the individual races during the weekend, to secure their
spots.
The Mixed
Relay Olympic Qualifier Event will start on Friday, May 17, at 7.15am local
time in Mexico, and you can watch the race LIVE on TriathlonLIVE.tv.
The final
team compositions will not be confirmed until two hours before the race - check
the start lists here.
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